TLC | Alanna Airitam & Star Montana in conversation with curator Delphine Sims

@ Join us for a special conversation with the curator and artists of TLC, Dr. Delphine Sims, Assistant Curator of Photography, San Francisco Museum of Art, along with participating artists Alanna Airitam and Star Montana. J Town & Youngsta, ©Alanna Airitam Level Up, ©Alanna Airitam Family Portrait, © Star Montana Paula, Martha with Daughter(s), © Star Montana About Dr. Delphine Sims – Delphine Sims is an Assistant Curator in the Department of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She completed her PhD in the History of Art Department at UC Berkeley with a focus on Blackness and American landscape photography. Delphine was awarded pre-doctoral fellowships at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts within the National Gallery of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exhibitions she curated and co-curated include, (Re)Constructing History, Around Group F.64, About Things Loved: Blackness and Belonging and Graciela Iturbide: Between Two Worlds. In addition to exhibition catalogs, her writing can be found in Aperture, Matte magazine, and the Believer. In 2026, Delphine was selected for the Studio Museum in Harlem’s Arts Leadership Praxis. About Alana Airitam – Alanna Airitam is a Tucson based, self-taught photographic artist whose work interrogates historical omissions, constructs of representation, and the visual legacies of Black identity. Rooted in the spirit of early nineteenth century Black studio photographers and the theoretical frameworks of Black feminist thinkers such as Tina M. Campt and Christina Sharpe, her practice confronts the afterlives of colonialism, visualizing Black presence beyond the constraints of erasure and exclusion. Through her engagement with light, materiality, and historical reference, she constructs images to disrupt dominant visual traditions while embodying both ancestral memory and Afrofuturist reimagination. Airitam’s work employs dramatic chiaroscuro style lighting processes to elevate subjects often erased from Western art history. Her richly toned prints evoke a painterly quality, merging contemporary photographic techniques with the visual language of classical portraiture. Drawing from the lineage of Black studio photography, she explores portraiture as a site of reclamation and resistance. Her images, enriched by archival research and material experimentation, integrate metal, resin, varnish, and gold to create layered works that blur the boundaries between photography, painting, iconography, and object making. Her practice speaks to the complexities of visibility, the impact of exclusion, and the radical potential of Black presence in historically inaccessible spaces. Her work has been included in critical conversations on representation, the history of Black studio photographers, and the Dutch Golden Age’s colonial legacy. Recent highlights include Black Diamonds at Etherton Gallery and The Collection: Dutch Art Expanded at Phoenix Art Museum. Her work has most recently been featured in Southwest Contemporary Magazine, Apocalypse Magazine, and Dear Dave Magazine, underscoring its relevance in contemporary discourse. By integrating historical inquiry with poetic and conceptual image making, Airitam’s practice invites viewers to reconsider who is seen, how we see, and what it means to reclaim Black presence in the archive, the canon, and the future. About Star Montana – Star Montana is a photo-based artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She was born and raised in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles, a predominantly Mexican American area that serves as the backdrop to much of her work. Her work has recently been exhibited at Charlie James Gallery (2019, 2016); Residency Art Gallery (2018); LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes (2018); Occidental College (2017); The Mexican Center for Culture and Cinematic Arts at the Mexican Consulate General of Mexico (2017); The Main Museum (2017); Ballroom Marfa (2017); and Vincent Price Art Museum (2016). Montana was the artist-in-residence at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in 2020. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Art from the University of Southern California, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the School of Visual Arts, and an Associate of Arts in Photography from East Los Angeles College. The Griffin Museum of Photography Add to calendar Google Calendar iCalendar Outlook 365 Outlook Live