Mtamanika Youngblood Curator-in-Residence: Sierra King
Haugabrooks Gallery – Atlanta, GA
2025 - 2026
Photo by John Stephens/JAS Photo of Sierra King
Sierra King (b.1992) is a Southern Black woman whose words fall out of her mouth like molasses. An artist, archivist, and curator she is interested in embodiment, memory work, non-linear timelines, southern colloquiums, musicianship and dark matter.
She holds a BA in Art from Valdosta State University and is currently a Social Justice For Archivists Scholar at The University of Alabama in the Masters of Library Science and Information Program. She serves as the founder and principal archivist of Build Your Archive, a nomadic memory work lab for Black Women Artists, Cultural Workers Organizers and their communities.
Her interdisciplinary practice presents photographic and archival installations in site specific spaces that honor the land— how it’s being kept and preserved. Sierra’s work begins and ends as a meditation on the archives. Most closely with Black Women Writers and Artists of the 20th century producing text and knowledge of feminist theory, Black Studies and Poetry. Her research follows the throughline of how rituals and routine practices amongst Black Women have led to historical pivots within the global narrative. Utilizing ephemera, inherited and found, she continues to explore the speculative narratives inside the gaps of history, liminal spaces, and fragmented memories.
She made her curatorial debut in 2020 with MINT Gallery in Atlanta,GA, where she mounted a group exhibition here.there.everywhere: A multidimensional portrait of the journey towards Black Futurity. King was the co-curator for New Worlds - Georgia Women to Watch alongside Melissa Messina showcased the work of 5 Georgia-based women artists. She has presented her work about art and community archiving at the 2018 American Studies Association Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA, the 2021 Memory Work for Black Lives Plenary presented by University of Oregon Library Archives for Black Lives: A Liberated Archives Exhibition and the 2023 Art Libraries Society of North America 51st Conference in Mexico City, Mexico.
Sierra has been an artist-in-residence and fellow of Hambidge Creative Arts Center (2020,2022), Hambidge Cross Pollination Lab alongside jasmine nicole williams (2021), Emory Arts and Social Justice Program in collaboration with the Emory University Symphony Orchestra (2022) and Remerge ATL(2023). In 2024, Sierra was selected by Atlanta Center For Photography to be one of the inaugural Teaching Studio Artists to co-design community workshops and programming.
Sierra currently lives in Smyrna,Georgia.
