by Alan Kimara Dixon
about
Anicka Austin is an artist and archivist. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Carolina Academic Library Associates fellowship, graduating in May 2020 with a Master of Science in Library Science. She currently works as collections processing archivist at Emory University’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library. A focus on embodied archives and the tension between ephemerality and documentation grew from the seeds of creative process as a 2017-2018 WonderRoot Hughley Fellow. Works from the Hughley fellowship were presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia and the Zuckerman Museum of Art’s Fine Arts Gallery (Kennesaw, GA).
In 2017, Austin created a temporary movement collective, sunday morning at 7, which performed with award-winning cellist Saira Raza for Adult Swim’s Bloodfeast and with percussionist and composer CW Gravely at The Bakery Atlanta. In 2018, Lev Omelchenko directed Birth of Pleasure, a film adaptation of sunday morning at 7’s live performance, sanctuaries and fortresses. Birth of Pleasure was featured in Issue 02 of DIY Dancer magazine. In 2020, the film was part of "Southern Movements" at the Indie Grits Festival in Columbia, S.C., the Roxbury Film Festival in Boston, M.A., and the Carrboro Film Festival in North Carolina. It was also an Official Selection of the BLOWUP: International Arthouse FILM FEST in Chicago, IL.
In 2016, Chroma, an immersive, multimedia work in collaboration with photographer Crystal Monds, was named Best New Dance Troupe by Creative Loafing and was performed at Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs' Gallery 72 as part of ELEVATE Atlanta: Microcosm. A preview of the work was featured in ArtsATL.
Austin was a social movement artist with Lauri Stallings' gloATL from 2014-2015. In addition to moving in several works across Georgia with gloATL, she also participated in 6 weeks of glo's durational, public activations in Central Park (New York) programmed by Creative Time. She performed at the Rhodes Theater (Atlanta) in work by Erik Thurmond as part of gloATL’s initiative TANZ farm. Austin has also worked with artists Iman Person (New Air, 2021), Danielle Deadwyler (Bust It Open, 2020), Bella Dorado (Faest, High Museum of Art, 2017), and Blake Beckham.
She was an Ansley Park Distinguished Fellow at the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences in 2017 and a 2015-2018 Lucky Penny Work Room resident artist. She was 2021-2022 Art on the Atlanta Beltline Scholar-in-Residence. She was 2022-2023 Arts and Entertainment Grant recipient and 2022-2023 Nexus Grant recipient for collaborative work with Sierra King on Atlanta's Auburn Avenue.