The Outwin artist Sheldon Scott speaks with Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, Bicentennial Term Associate Professor in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, about his performance Portrait, number 1 man (day clean ta sun down), in which Scott uses his own body to create a portrait of his ancestors.

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Related program

The artist Sheldon Scott performs Portrait, number 1 man (day clean ta sun down) at the Museum on Thursday and Friday, November 18 and 19. Learn more >>

About the speakers

Born and raised in Pawley’s Island in the Gullah/Geechee Lowcountry of South Carolina, Sheldon Scott now lives and works in Washington, DC. His fine art practices play in the intersection of race, sexuality, and economics, while impugning mythologies of Black male supernaturality. His works includes performance, sculpture, installation, photography, spoken word, creative nonfiction, objects, video, and ephemera. Scott has exhibited at Delaware State University, Art Miami, Untitled Art Fair, Katzen Art Museum, David C. Driskell Center, and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, and his work has been acquired by esteemed collections including the National Museum of African-American History and Culture and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. He has been recognized by Americans for the Arts’s Best Public Art Program and as a finalist for the National Portrait Gallery’s 2019 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Scott has been a featured presenter at TEDx Mid-Atlantic, ArtTable, CreativeTime Festival, Washington Ideas Festival, and the Smithsonian Long Conversation. He currently serves on the boards of Teaching for Change, Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, Transformer, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre, and serves at the Global Head of Purpose at Eaton Workshop. Scott is represented by ConnerSmith Gallery and Ross and Yoon Literary Agency.

Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw is the Class of 1940 Bicentennial Term Associate Professor in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her PhD in art history from Stanford University and has served on the faculty of Harvard University and as the senior historian and director of research, publications, and scholarly programs at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. She is the author of numerous publications on the art and culture of the United States, with an emphasis on issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality.

In Conversation

“In Conversation” is a series of live online talks with artists, art historians, and scholars, exploring the intersections of art, history, and contemporary life. Bring your own questions and insights to these lively discussions from wherever you are.