Travis Somerville (born 1963) is an American artist based in San Francisco, California.
Known for tackling Southern racial issues, Somerville’s works incorporate collage painting and sculptural elements, as well as site-specific installations.
[1] His parents, both European American, were civil rights activists, his father worked as an Episcopal preacher and his mother was a schoolteacher.
Somerville’s work simultaneously tries to reconcile his personal struggle with his own Southern Christian upbringing and the overt tumultuous racial politics of then with the mixed messaging backlash of now.
In an interview with Nathan Larramendy, Somerville stated, “My southern identity will always play a part in my work because that is who I am...