"Narcissister, A Truly Kinky Artist,” an essay by Tiffany Barber won the The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery 2022 Director’s Essay Prize. . . . The essay, published in Art Journal’s spring 2020 issue, was chosen for its interdisciplinary contributions to the fields of American art, biography, history and cultural identity. . . . The June 8, 2022 announcement of the award states: “We were impressed by Barber’s groundbreaking analysis of Narcissister’s body of work,” the jurors said. “It is an immensely original essay, deeply researched and written with panache. We admired how Narcissister radically revises the ‘uses of the body’ in contemporary performance art by challenging, according to her text, ‘the reparative expectations of art, activism and multiculturalism in the post-civil rights era.’” . . . https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/national-portrait-gallery-announces-winner-2022-directors-essay-prize-scholars . . . http://artjournal.collegeart.org/?p=13330 . . . In September 2019, Barber gave an invited talk at the University of Minnesota titled, “Black Women’s Visual Alterity.” Focused on Narcissister's performances, the talk reconsidered what we expect black women and their art to do in times of social and political upheaval. . . . Images: Narcissister, Red Riding Hood, 2014 and Narcissister, Man/Woman 2009