“I am Black, and I love my Blackness,” Nellie Mae Rowe told a reporter in 1979. ⁠ ⁠ She embedded photographs of herself in at least a dozen works, including Real Girl (shown here), which captures various aspects of her identity and the way they intersect. Here, she has placed her signature at the heart of her composition under an image of herself in front of her home, holding a doll. ⁠ ⁠ Like a valentine to herself, Rowe uses traditionally feminine forms like bright pink, lacy edges, flowers, and the heart arabesque as a declaration that she is a “real girl,” embracing play and creativity during her artistic birthright. #NellieMaeRoweBkM⁠ ⁠ 🎨 Nellie Mae Rowe (American, 1900–1982). Real Girl, 1980. Color photograph, crayon, pen, pencil on cardboard, 14 × 11 in. (35.6 × 27.9 cm). High Museum of Art, gift of Judith Alexander, 2003.212. © 2022 Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. (Photo: Courtesy of the @highmuseumofart)