Diedrick Brackens is an LA-based textile artist, originally from Mexia, Texas. Brackens draws from a variety of textile traditions, including elements of European pictorial tapestry, West African strip-weaving, and quilts of the American South. Brackens renders his painstakingly woven textiles primarily in cotton, a material inextricably charged with America’s continued history of racialized violence and labor. His oeuvre synthesizes folklore, history, and contemporary American life into fantastical scenes where Black bodies engage in moments of intimacy, prayer, and defiant repose. He received his Masters of Fine Arts from California College of the Arts in San Francisco. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; New Orleans Museum of Art; Studio Museum, Harlem, NY; among others. Brackens has been the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including the Joyce Alexander Wein Prize in 2018 and the Marciano Artadia Award, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, and American Craft Council Emerging Voices Award in 2019.