What does it mean to return home to the place of one’s birth after many years living elsewhere?
Coming Home is an artistic journey of exploration, discovery, and the embracing of self from the perspective of oil painter Brittany Anne Baum. Born in Camden, New Jersey but raised in Orlando, Florida, the artist has returned to the place of her birth with a body of work that is both celebratory and confrontational.
After experiencing profound heartbreak in 2014, Baum began using art to help heal her heart and begin the process of self-exploration. Coming Home celebrates the beauty, resilience, and power of Black women living lives of comfort and grace. With the subjects’ forward gazes, Baum’s art tacitly commands the viewer to see, celebrate, and acknowledge the full humanity of Black women.
Not one to present Black femininity only through a spectacle of pain, the artist incorporates a lens that honors these women as rightful stewards and purveyors of artistic joy.
Baum is best known for her use of vibrant colors and bold brushstrokes to create images that celebrate Black beauty and power. Her work is influenced by her experiences as a self-taught artist of color navigating the arts since 2014.
Although Coming Home is now closed, you can still experience the art! Click below to see Baum’s work.
About the artist
With her ever-evolving approach to art, Brittany’s ultimate goal is for the viewers to see vulnerability, poise, grace and most of all self-love and expression in her body of work.
About Camden FireWorks
Camden FireWorks opened in Camden, NJ in June of 2016. Camden FireWorks’ mission is to use art to create social change. As the only independent art gallery in Camden, New Jersey, we have featured artwork from diverse artists representing a variety of disciplines. In addition, we offer studio rentals, art workshops, and hosts exhibitions and cultural performances in our 1889 firehouse.