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. Rouse’s practice is rooted in an ongoing curiosity about history — personal, inherited, and collective — and a commitment to bearing witness to the textures of lived experience. 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. Language operates in her work as both mark-making and verse, contributing to the visual and conceptual layering of each piece.
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; Stardust Fund, Houston, TX.
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; Stardust Fund, Houston, TX.
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. 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, because I believe the questions themselves are often where truth lives.
My practice is one of gathering: archival photographs, family materials, found objects, textiles, and fragments of abstracted language brought together across collage, painting, assemblage, and installation. These materials carry their own histories and form a visual language. 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 iterative improvisation, allowing material, memory, gesture, and possibility to co-create each work.
The works emerge as visual poems Rather than settling into a fixed narrative, they make room for resonance and for 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. 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, because I believe the questions themselves are often where truth lives.
My practice is one of gathering: archival photographs, family materials, found objects, textiles, and fragments of abstracted language brought together across collage, painting, assemblage, and installation. These materials carry their own histories and form a visual language. 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 iterative improvisation, allowing material, memory, gesture, and possibility to co-create each work.
The works emerge as visual poems Rather than settling into a fixed narrative, they make room for resonance and for seeing-and imagining-"otherwise".
|
|
|