Lanecia A. Rouse (b. 1978, Atlanta, GA) is an artist based between Richmond, Virginia, and Houston, Texas, whose multifaceted practice encompasses collage, abstract painting, photography, and curatorial work with non-profit organizations. Her practice lives at the intersection of art and spirituality, drawn to the questions that surface when image-making is understood as a contemplative act. Rooted in an ongoing curiosity about personal, inherited and collective history- her work turns toward ancestral memory, matrilineal knowledge, and the remnants of lived experience as primary material. She approaches art as a space to notice, to gather and to reconsider the narratives that shape us and the ones we choose to carry forward. Through collage, she re-contextualizes photographs, family archival materials, found objects, and abstracted language.
Rouse has exhibited at the University of Richmond, Richmond, VA (2026); Ziehr Smith Contemporary Art Gallery, Nashville, TN (2026); Curb Center at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN (2025); University Museum of Texas Southern University, Houston, TX (2025); Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA (2022, 2023, 2025); Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA (2024); Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN (2024); Preacher Gallery, Austin, TX (2024); and the Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN, as part of Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage (2023), which traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, and The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC. Additional exhibitions include Project Row Houses, Houston, TX (2020, 2022); Asia Society Texas Center, Houston, TX (2022); Urban Zen Gallery, New York, NY (2021, 2022); Duke University Chapel (2022); and the American Church in Paris, France (2018).
Her work is held in the collections of Google, Houston, TX; Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Chicago, IL; Holy Family HTX Episcopal Church, Houston, TX; Sweetgreen, Houston, TX; The American Church in Paris, France; The Brooklyn Collective, Charlotte, NC; The Everything Happens Project, Durham, NC; and Stardust Fund, Houston, TX.
Her work has also appeared on the covers of Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems and Meditations for Staying Human by Cole Arthur Riley; Being Here: Prayers for Curiosity, Justice and Love; and The Say 2026 Poetry Anthology.
Rouse has participated in residencies at the Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts, Charleston, SC (2023); Asia Society HTX, Houston, TX (2022); Rice University's Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (2020–2021); and served as the Inaugural Berg Global Artist-in-Residence Fellow at Vanderbilt University (2025). She has shared her practice through workshops at SnowFarm New England Craft School, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Shakerag Workshops, and The Glen Workshop.
Rouse serves as Artist-in-Residence partner at Holy Family HTX Episcopal Church, where she guides the curation team for the Lanecia A. Rouse Gallery, and sits on the Board of Directors for Image Journal and 1708 Gallery in Richmond, VA.
She is a graduate of Wofford College and Duke University Divinity School.
Rouse has exhibited at the University of Richmond, Richmond, VA (2026); Ziehr Smith Contemporary Art Gallery, Nashville, TN (2026); Curb Center at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN (2025); University Museum of Texas Southern University, Houston, TX (2025); Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA (2022, 2023, 2025); Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA (2024); Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN (2024); Preacher Gallery, Austin, TX (2024); and the Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN, as part of Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage (2023), which traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, and The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC. Additional exhibitions include Project Row Houses, Houston, TX (2020, 2022); Asia Society Texas Center, Houston, TX (2022); Urban Zen Gallery, New York, NY (2021, 2022); Duke University Chapel (2022); and the American Church in Paris, France (2018).
Her work is held in the collections of Google, Houston, TX; Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Chicago, IL; Holy Family HTX Episcopal Church, Houston, TX; Sweetgreen, Houston, TX; The American Church in Paris, France; The Brooklyn Collective, Charlotte, NC; The Everything Happens Project, Durham, NC; and Stardust Fund, Houston, TX.
Her work has also appeared on the covers of Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems and Meditations for Staying Human by Cole Arthur Riley; Being Here: Prayers for Curiosity, Justice and Love; and The Say 2026 Poetry Anthology.
Rouse has participated in residencies at the Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts, Charleston, SC (2023); Asia Society HTX, Houston, TX (2022); Rice University's Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (2020–2021); and served as the Inaugural Berg Global Artist-in-Residence Fellow at Vanderbilt University (2025). She has shared her practice through workshops at SnowFarm New England Craft School, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Shakerag Workshops, and The Glen Workshop.
Rouse serves as Artist-in-Residence partner at Holy Family HTX Episcopal Church, where she guides the curation team for the Lanecia A. Rouse Gallery, and sits on the Board of Directors for Image Journal and 1708 Gallery in Richmond, VA.
She is a graduate of Wofford College and Duke University Divinity School.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Art, for me, is both a practice and a bridge, connecting us to one another and to the vast, wild, luminous landscapes within us. My work lives at the intersection of art and theology, drawn to the questions that surface when image-making is understood as a contemplative act of inquiry into what it means to be human, to remember and to belong. It is rooted in curiosity about the intersection of history and memory, how remembering shapes identity and becoming, and in a commitment to bearing witness to the sacred textures of lived experience. I approach this work contemplatively, sitting with storied materials and with questions that do not resolve quickly.
My practice is one of gathering — from the land, from family, from memory. Archival photographs, natural materials, found objects, textiles and fragments of abstracted language come together across collage, painting, assemblage and installation. I am drawn to making processes that require time and the hand — stitching, collage, transfer — and at times, to surrendering part of the work to the environment itself: sun, water, rust, and time becoming co-makers. My work exists in conversation with a long tradition of artists who use domestic and found materials to tell stories that might otherwise go untold—insisting on the fullness, complexity and beauty of lives lived outside the dominant frame. Form emerges through repetition and improvisation, through returning and remaining open — curious about what materials will do, what they will say, what they can become,
The works emerge as visual poems for naming, seeing and imagining-"otherwise".
Art, for me, is both a practice and a bridge, connecting us to one another and to the vast, wild, luminous landscapes within us. My work lives at the intersection of art and theology, drawn to the questions that surface when image-making is understood as a contemplative act of inquiry into what it means to be human, to remember and to belong. It is rooted in curiosity about the intersection of history and memory, how remembering shapes identity and becoming, and in a commitment to bearing witness to the sacred textures of lived experience. I approach this work contemplatively, sitting with storied materials and with questions that do not resolve quickly.
My practice is one of gathering — from the land, from family, from memory. Archival photographs, natural materials, found objects, textiles and fragments of abstracted language come together across collage, painting, assemblage and installation. I am drawn to making processes that require time and the hand — stitching, collage, transfer — and at times, to surrendering part of the work to the environment itself: sun, water, rust, and time becoming co-makers. My work exists in conversation with a long tradition of artists who use domestic and found materials to tell stories that might otherwise go untold—insisting on the fullness, complexity and beauty of lives lived outside the dominant frame. Form emerges through repetition and improvisation, through returning and remaining open — curious about what materials will do, what they will say, what they can become,
The works emerge as visual poems for naming, seeing and imagining-"otherwise".
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