BUTTER 2025 | AARON S. COLEMAN

Aaron S. Coleman (Indianapolis, IN) is a multi-disciplinary artist and Associate Professor at the Herron School of Art and Design, where he holds the Kenneth E. Tyler Endowed Chair. His work, spanning printmaking, sculpture, collage, and installation, examines how ordinary objects embody the layered histories of race and class in the United States. Drawing on rigorous historical research, Coleman recontextualizes familiar materials like picket fences, textiles, and basketball court flooring, revealing their ties to systemic oppression. His recent print series explores language as a survival technology, combining public signage, song lyrics, and quotes from figures such as James Baldwin and Fred Moten. Influenced by graffiti, political messaging, and digital censorship evasion tactics, these prints distort and code text to reflect the complexities of Black identity and resistance. His work can be found in the collections of The Janet Turner Print Museum, the Ino-cho Paper Museum in Kochi, Japan, The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, The Yekaterinburg Museum of Art in Yekaterinburg, Russia, the National Library of France, and the Artist Printmaker and Photographer Research Archive among many other public and private collections. He is a contributing author and artist to the forthcoming Routledge Handbook on Critical Arts-Based Research.