her African-American heritage in her art. Through the African diaspora, as well as the world and her immediate environment, Stout finds the inspiration to create works that encourage self-examination, self-empowerment and self-healing, harnessing the belief systems of African peoples and their descendants. Additionally, Stout uses imaginary characters to create a variety of artwork, some of which include: painting, mixed media sculpture, photography and installation. Stout is the recipient of awards from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, and has shown her work in solo and group shows throughout the United States, and in England, Russia and the Netherlands. In 1993, Stout was the first African American to have a one-person exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art. Her exhibition was titled The Eyes of Understanding: Kongo Minkisi and The Art of Renee Stout. Renee Stout was a 2000 Artist-in-Residence at the Tryon Center for Visual Art in Charlotte, NC. In 2021 she was one of the jurors for The Phillips Collection's juried invitational, Inside Outside, Upside Down, a show that "forces us to remember a time that left us 'confused, battered, and disoriented' through the eyes of 64 D.C.-area artists." Artistic style Combining vestigial African American customs and street culture with the theatrical and carnivalesque, Stout's oeuvre consists of handmade assemblages, installations and tableaus, vibrant paintings, prints, and photographs – all of which are employed in the creation of complex narratives featuring characters conceived by the artist. Her artistic influences include Yoruba sculpture, and the nkisi (sacred objects) of the Central African Congo Basin, which she first saw at the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh in her youth. Other subjects in her work often include Haitian Vodou, the space and culture of New Orleans and the creole Voodoo practitioner Marie Laveau. In an interview conducted by Dr.O in her book Tales of the Conjure Woman, Stout says that in order to open the conversations, regarding the ancestry of African American culture, she will continue inspiring her works on themes such as African-derived spiritual belief systems and Hodoo. She also admits to having to "occupy a weird space within the art world--a place that has more possibilities, both in energy and spirit" Tales of the Conjure Woman presents an artistic interpretation of hoodoo and voodoo that unmasks these mysterious and lasting traditions. Channeling her alter ego, Fatima Mayfield, a fictitious herbalist and