Renee Cox

Born: 1960

Hometown: Colgate, Jamaica

Lives and Works: New York, NY

Education: Whitney Museum of American Art, Independent Study Program, New York, 1993
MFA, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, 1992

Renee Cox Bio

About The Artist

Jamaican-born Renee Cox has become one of the most controversial African-American artists working today. She uses her own body in her photography to celebrate black womanhood and to explore racism, gender, and religion in our society.

In her infamous series Flipping the Script, Cox replaced characters in European religious masterpieces, such as Michelangelo's David, with contemporary black figures. The most controversial work from the series hung in the Brooklyn Museum: Yo Mama's Last Supper, a remake of Leonardo's da Vinci's The Last Supper, features Cox posing nude as Jesus, surrounded by all-black disciples except for a white Judas. In response, New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani fought to remove the work and to form a commission to set standards of decency for state-funded museums.