Al-An deSouza works across different disciplines, including photography, digital media, text, performance, and pedagogy. Their work examines and restages colonizing legacies through strategies of humor, fabulation, and (mis)translation. deSouza has shown extensively in the US and internationally, including at SF Camerawork; the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; Krannert Museum, IL; Blaffer Museum, TX; Pompidou Centre, Paris; Mori Museum, Tokyo; African Photography Encounters Biennale, Bamako, Mali; Gwangju Biennale, Korea; and Guangzhou Triennale, China. deSouza has published two recent books: How Art Can Be Thought: A Handboook for Change (Duke University Press, 2018), examines possibilities for decolonizing art pedagogy and critique. The book provides an extensive analytical glossary of some of the most common terms used to discuss art, focusing on their current usage while considering how those terms may be adapted to new artistic and social challenges; Ark of Martyrs: An Autobiography of V (Sming Sming Books, 2020), is a polyphonic replacement of Joseph Conrad’s infamous Heart of Darkness (1899), and with a dysphoric, dystopian narrative set on a cruise ship that’s adrift and under quarantine. deSouza’s essays and fiction have been published in numerous journals, anthologies, and catalogues, including Third Text, London, Art Practical, Art Journal, NY, and Art History: Journal of the Association for Art History
deSouza was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and has been a practicing artist in London, New York, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area. They participated in the Critical Studies program of the Whitney Independent Studies Program, New York, and have an MFA in Photography from UCLA and a BA(Hons) Fine Art from Bath Academy of Art, England, deSouza has taught at various schools, including UC Irvine, CalArts, SAIC, SFAI, VCFA, and Bard College, has lectured extensively at universities, schools, and museums around the world, and is represented by Talwar Gallery, NY and New Delhi.
Campus Affiliations:
Institute of South Asia Studies
Center for African Studies
Center for Race and Gender
Courses Taught:
ART 21 – Digital Photography Foundations
ART 119 – Global Perspectives in Contemporary Art
ART 180 – Advanced Photography
ART 185 – Senior Projects/Professional Practices
ART 218 – Graduate Theory and Criticism
ART 294 – Graduate Critique Seminar