b. 1958, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Lives and works in Washington DC

Renee Stout is inspired to create artworks that deal with the human condition. She seeks to promote self-examination, self-empowerment and self-healing. Her practice is informed by the heritage and belief systems of the global African Diaspora as well as her own personal experience. Stout works across a range of media, including painting, sculpture, photography and installation.

Stout has created a fictitious alter ego called Fatima Mayfield to confront and attempt to understand the complexity of the human experience. The artist explains: The alter ego Fatima Mayfield, a fictitious herbalist/fortuneteller, is the vehicle that allows me to role play in order to confront the issues, whether it's romantic relationships, social ills, or financial woes, in a way that's open, creative and humorous.

Stout believes in the power of objects to transmit knowledge. In creating a lifelong body of work that serves as evidence of existence, she shows the unfolding story of a modern culture that embodies everything that came before. Her work draws power from the struggle of forces political, religious, intellectual present at this moment in history. As a society we are at the Crossroads, embroiled in a storm of conflicting viewpoints, social and economic inequality, and political and religious conflict. We are presented with daily news of tragic killings, mass shootings, and the destruction of cultural and societal heritage. Stout faces this Wild World head on, responding to anguish with compassion and the desire to move forward. Always questioning "do you see me? do you see yourself?" Stout commands the viewer to examine their choices and conjure the consequences.

Renee Stout is a recipient of the Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize (2012), David C. Driskell Prize (2010), a Joan Mitchell Award (2005), The Pollock Krasner Foundation Award (1991 & 1999), the Anonymous Was a Woman Award (1999), The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (1993), the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Regional Visual Arts Fellowship, a Tryon Center for Visual Arts Residency, and the Driskell Prize given by the High Museum of Art.

Ren¨¦e Stout is a recipient of the Women¡¯s Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award (2018), Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize (2012), David C. Driskell Prize (2010), a Joan Mitchell Award (2005), The Pollock Krasner Foundation Award (1991 & 1999), the Anonymous Was a Woman Award (1999), and The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (1993). Her work is included in such collections as The Africa Museum, Berg en Dal, Netherlands, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The High Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art, The San Francisco Museum of Fine Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, among others. Stout was the subject of the traveling exhibition ¡°Tales of the Conjure Woman,¡± originating at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art in 2013, a solo exhibition, ¡°Funk Dreamscapes from the Invisible Parallel Universe¡± at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, WI in 2018 and ¡°Church of the Crossroads: Ren¨¦e Stout in the Belger Collection¡± at the Belger Center in Kansas City, MO in 2018.