Keisha Scarville Fine Print

lick of finger #21, 2023

Archival inkjet print, 11x13.75" image on 13x15.75" paper

Edition of 50, signed and numbered by the artist

Frame not included

This image was made specifically for my book, lick of tongue, rub of finger, on soft wound, where I explore how notions of belonging and identity are formed and structured. In the book, I interweave my images with archival imagery, passages from books, personal texts, and film stills to engage new genealogies and disrupt conventional, linear histories.

Keisha Scarville (b. Brooklyn, NY; lives Brooklyn, NY) weaves together themes dealing with loss, latencies, and the elusive body. Her work has been widely exhibited, including at the International Center of Photography, New York; Studio Museum in Harlem; Huxley–Parlour, London; ICA Philadelphia; Contact Gallery, Toronto; Light Work, Syracuse; Brooklyn Museum; Higher Pictures, Brooklyn; and Webber Gallery, Los Angeles. Recent group exhibitions include the 2nd Bienal das Amazônias, Belém, Brazil (2025, curated by Manuela Moscoso); Les Rencontres d’Arles 2025; The Rose, Lumber Room, Portland, Oregon (2023, curated by Justine Kurland); If I Had a Hammer, FotoFest Biennial 2022, Houston, Texas; and All of Them Witches, Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles (2020, curated by Dan Nadel and Laurie Simmons). Her work is held in the collections of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Yale University Art Gallery, George Eastman House, Denver Museum of Art, and Detroit Institute of Arts. She has participated in residencies at Light Work, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, WOPHA, Baxter St at CCNY, and Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture. In addition, her work has appeared in Vice, Small Axe, and The New York Times. She was a recipient of the 2023 Creator Labs Photo Fund and awarded the inaugural Saltzman Prize in 2024. She is currently a visiting professor in the Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University and a faculty member at Parsons School of Design in New York. Her first book, lick of tongue, rub of finger, on soft wound, was published by MACK and shortlisted in the 2023 Paris Photo–Aperture Photobook Awards. Her second book with MACK is scheduled to be published in spring 2026.