Biography

Faith Ringgold was born in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in 1930. She came from a close family, whose love of story telling was an important early influence.  Ringgold learned quilting from her mother and grandmother. African masks and Tibetan Tankas (painting on silk cloth) inspired her art as well. Faith is best known for painted storytelling quilts, which is now considered high art/craft.

Ringgold associates the use of cloth with women's work and the medium of quilting resonates with the history of slavery. In her quilts, she expresses racism and gender inequality, as well as the absence of black images and subject matters in contemporary art. She uses her identity as an African-American woman to tell stories of marriage, family and African American social history. Ringgold first started making cloth works because the objects could be stored and transported easily. She developed "trunk" shows of her work to be exhibited at universities and other spaces, bypassing traditional middlemen such as art dealers. Ringgold not only paints, she writes text on the fabric to narrate her stories. Faith Ringgold helped founded the women’s group “Where we At”, which was to make sure that African American women and even men have equal exhibition in the museum world. Ringgold has writen many children's books like Tar Beach, Aunt Harriets Underground Railroad in the Sky, The Invisible Princess, and My Dream of Martin Luther King . One of her the most popular children books is "Tar Beach".