Undergrad Kennedy Ferguson explores Black girlhood, community through portraiture

In July 2024, Kennedy René Ferguson walked into a used bookstore in New York City and discovered the work of Black women writers like bell hooks and Toni Morrison. It was experiences like this during her participation in the New York Academy’s Summer Undergraduate Residency Program that inspired Ferguson to explore her own coming of age and artistry.

“That experience really shaped a way for me to psychoanalyze why I like doing portraits, and it bled into something cohesive,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson, a third-year Penn State student majoring in biology with a concentration in ecology and a double minor in sociology and art, hosted her first solo art exhibit in Washington, D.C., in December. She showcased Black girlhood and “found family” – the dominant ideas she considered during her summer residency – and titled the exhibit “Sula” after her favorite Toni Morrison book.

“It centered on female friendships, and it helped me reflect on how I am really close to a lot of people who aren’t blood related to me, but they’ve been part of my life forever, and they feel like family,” she said.

Many of Ferguson’s paintings are self-portraits and portraits of friends and family because, she said, portraits resonate with her more than still-life or other styles.

“It’s really great for self-reflection to see how my skills grow over time and how physically I change and see myself,” she said.

That’s why “Sula” was designed to be a glimpse into her bedroom, where all of her favorite people, objects and memories were on display, explained Ferguson. She set up a fake bed with stuffed animals and knickknacks from her actual bedroom and laid out scrapbooks her mother made throughout her childhood.

Because community is so important to Ferguson in her artistic process, she said she really wanted to make the space immersive. She had a guestbook for visitors to sign and set up a table where people could write her letters or take videos to talk about girlhood and Black community.

“My ideas were transformed when my friends and community started pouring into the space,” she said. “I felt like that was representative of the theme, having all my family and friends there because they were in all the paintings, but they were also interacting with the space.”

Ferguson began organizing the exhibit in late November of last year, leaving just over a month to prepare. From the concept itself to the promotional material, supplies for labels, backing for paintings, finding a space to rent and more, she kept track of many moving pieces.

She said she started carrying a journal to jot notes in throughout the day so she wouldn’t forget anything and enlisted her friends and family to help set up the exhibit when the time came.

“As an artist, I just know how to make art, but you have to know how to wear all these hats like marketing and hanging paintings,” she said. “Everything became part of the exhibit, even experiences like running down the street trying to hand out flyers.”

Being surrounded by art galleries, museums and cultural centers on every block of New York City made Ferguson realize she wanted an exhibit of her own.

“I have this heart tug about selling work and doing commissions,” Ferguson said. “I wanted some kind of showcase before any piece of the puzzle gets sold or ends up somewhere else without the others.”

Her portraits will be reunited in the Patterson Building for “Sula Chapter 2” from Feb. 24 through March 1.

Besides creating art, Ferguson spends her time doing research on Masai giraffes from Tanzania for her ecology studies. A Schreyer Honors College Scholar, she is also social chair for Blueprint, a peer mentorship program for students of color run by the Paul Robeson Cultural Center, and an interim executive member of SoVA BIPOC (School of Visual Arts Black, Indigenous, People of Color).

She said she is also preparing to begin an internship at the Penn State Student Farm.

“Agriculture is a really important part of connecting humans and animals and sustainable practices,” Ferguson said. “I feel like I have a lot to learn there.”

With such a busy schedule, Ferguson said she doesn’t always have time for studio art classes on campus and has had to take a lot of virtual classes or independent studies. But she said she’s been passionate about art since high school and loves to take advantage of the art resources available in an academic setting.

“It took me a while to realize the benefit of leaning on an art community because I was so independent with my art studies for so long,” she said. “I feel like in that way, Penn State has shown me the value in having an art community and also using resources [like the woodshop and Palmer Museum of Art] to a new level.”