The Fires and Alchemy of Memory with Kimberly Anderson
The Alchemy of Memory with Kimberly Anderson
Join us via Zoom Wednesday, July 30th, at 7 pm EDT
Kimberly Anderson weaves together alternative processes, collage, natural dyes, and altered vernacular objects to layer personal and regional histories. Drawing from Southern Black spiritual traditions and family histories, her work weaves together photo fragments, vintage ads, and references to beauty shop price lists, community boards, and household materials. With roots in photography, KMA builds images that are both constructed and unearthed—blurring the line between surface and structure, recollection and residue.
Kimberly is interested in how memory degrades, how it curls, warps, or becomes scorched by time. She has been exploring this through paper making, creating works that use material choices to connect body, place, and memory to invite viewers into an intimate, layered reimaging of Southern identity rooted in resilience and ritual. Fire is used in the work as both metaphor and method, incorporated through burn marks, faded edges, and ghost images. What survives heat tells us something, what gets singed, and what insists on remaining.
Join us as we dive into how the alchemy of alternative processes and collage can keep the fires of stories alive through artistic practice. Together we will ponder new ways to alchemize our memories and illuminate our practice.
Kimberly Anderson is a Brooklyn based artist originally from Richmond, Virginia. Working through photo-based processes, collage, and papermaking, her practice explores memory, ruin, and the psychic residue of place. She uses cyanotype, anthotype, (often made from foodstuff) to layer personal and regional histories. Drawing from Southern Black spiritual traditions and domestic vernaculars, her work weaves together photo fragments, vintage ads, and references to beauty shop price lists, community boards, and household materials.
With roots in photography, KMA builds images that are both constructed and unearthed—blurring the line between surface and structure, recollection and residue.
Her work will be included in Familiar Rhythm: Time, Nostalgia & Memory at the Albany Museum of Art (2026) and has been featured in Southern Cultures Journal: The Gothic South (Winter 2023).
