Basil
Kincaid
Pronoun: Basil
[ID: Basil, an African American, is pictured from the waist up, smiling, standing in front of one of Basil’s quilt works, which hangs on the wall behind the artist. The hanging work is a myriad of colors. Basil is also wearing a quilt, another one of Basil’s works, which is draped over Basil’s body exposing one of Basil’s shoulders.]
St. Louis, MO
2021 USA Fellow
This award was generously supported by Anonymous.
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Basil Kincaid (b. 1986, St. Louis) is a postdisciplinary artist who constructs, contemplates, and revises self-imposed and conditioned limitations and explores their fixity. Through quilting, collaging, photography, installation, and performance—done with found, salvaged, and donated materials—Kincaid discards social mores while drafting alternative cultural fabrics. With an improvisational and community-oriented approach, resourcefulness and freedom of imagination emerge as critical components in the liberation of spirit.
Basil studied drawing and painting at Colorado College, graduating in 2010. Basil has exhibited works with Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago, Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami, Kravets Wehby Gallery in New York, and Carl Kostyál in London. Basil is part of the JP Morgan permanent art collection and recently debuted The Release, Basil’s first museum performance, at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis. Kincaid is a 2020 recipient of the Regional Arts Commission Fellowship and begins 2021 with A Restful Place, a solo show of never-before-seen collage works at Galería Leyendecker in Santa Cruz, Spain.
Portrait photo courtesy Basil Kincaid Studio.
Spirit in Transformation, 2019. Donated cotton, wool, denim, silk, velvet, canvas, hand-dyed cotton, various materials from the artist’s travels in Ghana, donated curtains, dimensions 86 × 75 × 7 inches. Photo courtesy Basil Kincaid Studio.[ID: a quilt featuring a range of colors, including red, pink, purple and blue, as well as some patterns, is draped from the wall to form an abstract shape.]
Self Portrait: At First You Wanted to Be Cool, Now You Want to Be Free, 2019–2020. Mink fur, clothes from the artist, clothes from the artist's brother and father, preserved charred wood from local house fire, found objects on Wood Panel, dimensions 70 × 36 × 11 inches. Photo courtesy Basil Kincaid Studio.[ID: A mink fur coat is draped over a body of quilt. The red, blue and patterned quilt hangs within the confines of the coat and extends below the bottom of the coat's length.]
Sculpting Greatness, 2018. Framed dye emulsion printed directly on aluminum, dimensions 45 × 30 × 2 inches. Photo courtesy Basil Kincaid Studio.[ID: A photograph of a collage in which the hands of a black man appear to be manicuring the head of a young black man using a miniature lawn mower. The young man has his head bent slightly to the side, eyes closed. Images of leaves, branches, and grass comprise his forehead, back of head, and chin.]