Tourmaline

Tourmaline (born 1983, Roxbury, Massachusetts) is an American artist, filmmaker, writer, and activist whose practice centers Black trans life, queer history, abolitionist thought, and the radical possibilities of freedom. Working across film, photography, installation, writing, and public history, she creates works that honor historical figures, recover overlooked narratives, and imagine liberatory futures rooted in pleasure, care, and collective memory. Her practice moves fluidly between archival research and speculative worldmaking, using visual and narrative strategies to foreground the lives and legacies of Black trans women and queer communities too often excluded from dominant historical accounts.  Tourmaline studied Comparative Ethnic Studies at Columbia University, a foundation that continues to shape her interdisciplinary approach to art and political memory. Her work often draws from community history, performance, and cinematic storytelling to build emotionally resonant portraits of resistance, intimacy, and transformation. Across her films and visual art, she returns to themes of Black feminist freedom, trans embodiment, joy as a political force, and the power of reimagining the archive.  Her work has been exhibited internationally and included in major museum presentations and collections. Tourmaline has participated in the Whitney Biennial and has had work shown at institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and Museum Brandhorst. Her work is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, Tate, and the Whitney. She is also a Guggenheim Fellow and a TIME100 honoree. Tourmaline lives and works in New York.