CAMERON SPRATLEY

Cameron Spratley is an American painter whose work addresses the enduring violences of racism and its entanglement with visual culture. Through layered compositions built from acrylic, oil, airbrush, marker, and collage, he creates dense surfaces that reflect the psychic toll of anti-Blackness in the United States. Figures are fragmented or obscured, slogans cut across faces, and symbols accumulate without resolution. Spratley draws from mass media, subcultural aesthetics, and lived experience, channeling their forms into paintings that register resistance and exhaustion.

Language plays a central role in Spratley’s practice. Phrases—sometimes coded, sometimes blunt—are embedded into the canvas as interruptions, provocations, or veiled accusations. They operate alongside fractured imagery to create a field where recognition is partial and meaning is unstable. Each canvas holds multiple registers at once: rage, mourning, survival, and refusal. Through this approach, he builds a visual language attuned to the conditions of Black life in a country shaped by fear and spectacle.

Cameron Spratley (American, b. 1994 in Manassas, VA) lives and works in Chicago. Recent solo exhibitions of Spratley’s work include Violets and Daisies (2023)at M. LeBlanc in Chicago, American Portraiture (2023) at Moskowitz Bayse in Los Angeles, In the Air Tonight (2021) at James Fuentes in New York, Caged Bird Songs (2021) at James Fuentes (Online) in New York, and 730 (2020) at M. LeBlanc in Chicago. Spratley’s work was included in recent group exhibitions, Homotopy Type Theory (2023) at Centralbanken in Oslo, SKIN+MASKS (2022) at Kavi Gupta in Chicago, A Healthy Dose of Nihilism (2022) at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Columbus, OH, Sagittarius (2022) at Night Club Gallery in Minneapolis, Made to be Broken (2022) at P.P.O.W. in New York, Songs of Fire (2022) at Kranzberg Arts Foundation in St. Louis, Moloch (2021) at M. LeBlanc, Chicago, and Notes on Entropy (2020) at Arcadia Missa in London. Spratley obtained his bachelor's degree in 2016 from Virginia Commonwealth University. He attended the Yale University at Norfolk residency, was the recipient of the Alice Cabell Horsely Parker Scholarship from Virginia Commonwealth University, and received a full tuition scholarship from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago where he completed his MFA. In 2021, Spratley collaborated with filmmaker Jordan Peele and his firm Monkeypaw Productions on the remake of Candyman, set in Chicago.

CURRICULUM VITAE

EXHIBITIONS

April 13th - May 24th, 2024
Group Exhibition

September 9th - October 28th 2023
Violets and Daisies

October 18th to November 20th 2021
MOLOCH

June 13th - August 15th 2020
730

PUBLICATIONS

Cameron Spratley | Necropolis | Monograph

Cameron Spratley & Max Volkman
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony Korine Artist Book

Cottonwood Fallin' Like Snow In July , 2023 acrylic, flashe, inkjet prints, colored pencil, grease marker, cut paper, and UV coating on canvas 30 x 26 in. (76.20 x 66.04 cm) CS0073

Cottonwood Fallin' Like Snow In July, 2023
acrylic, flashe, inkjet prints, colored pencil, grease marker, cut paper, and UV coating on canvas
30 x 26 in. (76.20 x 66.04 cm)
CS0073

AnotherLoverHOLEnyoHEAD , 2023 acrylic, oil, flashe, cut paper, inkjet prints, colored pencil, grease marker, and uv coating on canvas 30 x 26 in. (76.2 x 66.04 cm) CS0076

AnotherLoverHOLEnyoHEAD, 2023
acrylic, oil, flashe, cut paper, inkjet prints, colored pencil, grease marker, and uv coating on canvas
30 x 26 in. (76.2 x 66.04 cm)
CS0076

King Cobra , 2021 acrylic, flashe, gouache, ink, inkjet prints, grease marker, cut paper, found funeral sticker, and UV varnish on canvas 59.0625 x 47¼ x 0.96875 in. (150 x 120 x 2.5 cm) CS1164

King Cobra, 2021
acrylic, flashe, gouache, ink, inkjet prints, grease marker, cut paper, found funeral sticker, and UV varnish on canvas
59.0625 x 47¼ x 0.96875 in. (150 x 120 x 2.5 cm)
CS1164

Violets and Daisies , M. LeBlanc, Chicago, 2023.

Violets and Daisies, M. LeBlanc, Chicago, 2023.

The Ill LouMalnati , 2023 acrylic, oil, flashe, spraypaint, ink, inkjet prints, grease marker, colored pencil, cut paper, and UV coating on canvas 59 x 47¼ in. (150 x 120 cm) CS0084

The Ill LouMalnati, 2023
acrylic, oil, flashe, spraypaint, ink, inkjet prints, grease marker, colored pencil, cut paper, and UV coating on canvas
59 x 47¼ in. (150 x 120 cm)
CS0084

AMERICAN PORTRAITURE , Moskowitz Bayse, Los Angeles CA, 2023.

AMERICAN PORTRAITURE, Moskowitz Bayse, Los Angeles CA, 2023.

Evil Weapon Pattern Castle , 2024 acrylic, oil, inkjet prints, grease marker, colored pencil, cut paper, and UV varnish on canvas 30 x 26 in. (76.2 x 66.04 cm) CSP0091

Evil Weapon Pattern Castle, 2024
acrylic, oil, inkjet prints, grease marker, colored pencil, cut paper, and UV varnish on canvas
30 x 26 in. (76.2 x 66.04 cm)
CSP0091

In the Air Tonight , James Fuentes, New York, NY, 2021.

In the Air Tonight, James Fuentes, New York, NY, 2021.

Ghetto Dreams , 2020 acrylic, flashe, oil, inkjet prints, grease marker, and cut paper on canvas 78 x 62 in. (198.12 x 157.48 cm) CS1153

Ghetto Dreams, 2020
acrylic, flashe, oil, inkjet prints, grease marker, and cut paper on canvas
78 x 62 in. (198.12 x 157.48 cm)
CS1153

Winds Of Change , 2023 acrylic, flashe, airbrush, inkjet prints, grease marker, colored pencil, cut paper, and UV coating on canvas 30 x 26 in. (76.2 x 66.04 cm) CS0077

Winds Of Change, 2023
acrylic, flashe, airbrush, inkjet prints, grease marker, colored pencil, cut paper, and UV coating on canvas
30 x 26 in. (76.2 x 66.04 cm)
CS0077

730 , M. LeBlanc, Chicago IL, 2020.

730, M. LeBlanc, Chicago IL, 2020.