Kevin Claiborne is a multidisciplinary conceptual artist whose work explores how Black identity is shaped through history, memory, and mental health. Engaging with the emotional and psychological landscapes of the Black American experience, his practice probes the quiet weight of intergenerational trauma, the silences in the archive, and the ongoing negotiation of self in a world saturated with imposed narratives.
Claiborne works across collage, photography, silkscreen, painting, and sculpture, shifting between mediums as his questions evolve. Drawing from his family archive and personal library, he constructs visual essays from found imagery, original poetry, and layered mark-making—treating language as both a tool and a terrain. Rather than seeking resolution, his work moves through ambiguity, using image and text to surface what is often left unsaid or unrecorded. His process is not about reconstruction but reframing: making space for what history overlooks or cannot hold. By positioning personal material alongside broader cultural references, Claiborne invites viewers into a dialogue about narrative ownership, the role of storytelling in survival, and how we come to understand ourselves in relation to the past.
Originally from Washington, D.C. and currently based in Harlem, New York City, Claiborne holds an MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University, an MS in Higher Education from Syracuse University, and a BS in Mathematics from North Carolina Central University.
Fragments Collage Club
Fragments Collage Club is an intimate, mail-based art project by Kevin Claiborne. Each month, subscribers receive a hand-assembled envelope containing a collage print and a short poem, fragments of image and language sent out like signals. Rooted in Claiborne’s broader practice of excavation and reconstruction, the club offers a quiet exchange across distance, inviting reflection on memory, identity, and the stories we carry.