Deanna Bowen is a Toronto-based artist whose auto-ethnographic practice examines race, migration, historical writing and authorship. Bowen make use of a repertoire of artistic gestures in order to define the Black body and trace its presence and movement in place and time. In recent years, her work has involved rigorous examination of my family lineage and their connections to the Black Prairie pioneers of Alberta and Saskatchewan, the Creek Negroes and All-Black towns of Oklahoma, the extended Kentucky/Kansas Exoduster migrations and the Ku Klux Klan.

The artistic products of her research were presented at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Western Front, Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity; Mercer Union, a centre for Contemporary Art; and the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery. In 2018 her solo exhibition "ON TRIAL The Long Doorway" was awarded the Ontario Association of Art Galleries’ Monographic Exhibition of the Year (Budget over $20,000) award. Deanna has also received numerous awards in support of her practice including a 2018 Canada Council Concept/Realization Grant, a 2017 New Chapter Grant; Ontario Arts Council Media Arts Grant, 2016 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and the 2014 William H. Johnson Prize.