Hannah McBroom (b. 1993, Mississippi) is a studio artist living and working in St. Louis, Missouri. Her paintings and drawings use allegory to explore her experience as a transwoman, blending autobiography and fiction through themes of intimacy, sacrifice, and wilderness.
Working from imagination, she builds compositions through notan — balancing shadow and light to create scenes charged with emotional tension. This approach allows emotional states to emerge without the constraints of documentation, giving form to interior worlds that are often unseen or unarticulated. Her narratives begin in personal reflection and memory, then expand into images where figures navigate solitude, desire, and the shifting terrain of selfhood.
Across these works, she proposes alternative mythologies of trans life, centering pleasure rather than the familiar narratives of grief. By situating trans experience within allegorical and atmospheric spaces, her practice resists the reductive frameworks often imposed on trans bodies and instead foregrounds awe, agency, and the complexity of becoming.
Education
2019 Master of Fine Arts Candidate, University of Arkansas
2018-17 Chautauqua School of Fine Arts, Chautauqua Institute
2015 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Art/Painting, Mississippi State University
Exhibitions and Publications
2026 Orlando, Marrow Gallery, California
2024 Transfigure, Fenix Gallery, Arkansas
2023 New Worlds, Arkansas Women to Watch, Arkansas
2022 Reclaiming & Making, Museum of Sex, New York City, NY
2021 No Man’s Land, Windgate Museum of Art, Conway, AR
2020 State of the Art 2020, Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Bentonville, AR
2020 Our Lady Parts, Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, FL
2020 Looking For America, Northwest Arkansas
2020 Changing Bodies, Bellevue College, Bellevue, WA
2019 She M2 Gallery, Little Rock, AR
2019 House Party, The Gallery at Midtown Associates, Bentonville, AR
2019 International Painting Annual #9, Manifest, Cincinnati, OH
2019 What Was Lost Bunker Center for the Arts, Kansas City, MO
2019 Elevate 21c Hotel, Bentonville, AR
2019 Green: Year Two Company Club, Bentonville, AR
2018 Gifted Exhibition LUX Center for the Arts, West Gallery, Lincoln, NE
2018 LGBTQ+ Juried Exhibition Hive Mind Gallery, Akron, OH
2018 Chautauqua School of Fine Arts Student Exhibit, Fowler-Kellogg Art Center Chautauqua Institution, NY
2018 Solo Show Arsaga’s Café at the Depot, Fayetteville, AR
2018 Hommage to Femmage sUgAR Gallery, Fayetteville, AR
2018 Tender & Tangled Drew Henry Salon, St. Louis, MO
2017 Chautauqua School of Fine Arts Student Exhibition Fowler-Kellogg Art Center, Chautauqua Institution, NY
2017 7th Annual Tapped Exhibit Manifest Gallery Cincinnati, Ohio
2017 Don’t Tap on the Glass 2 Ames, Chautauqua Institution, NY
2016 Broken Things Exhibit Backspace, Fayetteville, AR
2016 TRAHC’s 28th Annual Juried Exhibition Regional Arts Center, Texarkana, TX
2016 Providence Art Club National Juried Exhibition – COLOR Providence, RI
2016 Valdosta National Juried Exhibition Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery, Valdosta, GA
2016 11th Annual Emerald Art Center: Emerald Spring Exhibition Springfield, OR Juror: Barbara Jaenicke
2015 International Painting Annual #6 Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
2015 South Eastern Conference Symposium Hyatt Regency Atlanta, GA
2015 Creative Quarterly Issue 41 Winter Runner Up
2015 TRAHC’s 27th Annual Juried Exhibition Regional Arts Center, Texarkana, TX
2015 Visiting BFA Exhibition, Loyola University, New Orleans, LA
2015 BFA Fine Art Senior Thesis Exhibition, McComas Art Gallery, Mississippi State University, MS
2015 43rd Annual Student Juried Exhibition McComas Art Gallery, Mississippi State University, MS
2014 Red Clay Survey Regional Competition Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL
Awards/Residencies
2019-16 Doctoral Fellowship University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
2019-16 Graduate Assistantship University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
2018 Artist 360 Grant Mid-America Artist Alliance, Kansas City, MO
2018 Karin A. and Melvin H. Johnson Scholarship Chautauqua School of Art, Chautauqua, NY
2018 Summer Research Fellowship Graduate School, University of Arkansas
2018 Project Grant School of Art, University of Arkansas
2018 Travel Grant Graduate School, University of Arkansas
2017 Visual Arts at Chautauqua Institution Partner’s Scholarship Chautauqua School of Art, Chautauqua, NY
2015 3rd Place TRAHC’s 27th Annual Juried Exhibition Regional Arts Center, Texarkana, TX
2015 Vermont Studio Center Residency August, Johnson, VT
2015 Mississippi State University College of Architecture, Art, and Design
2015 Travel Award, MSU, Mississippi State University
2015 Chalet Outstanding Fine Art Senior Award, 43rd Annual Student Exhibition, Mississippi State University, MS
2014 Laurel Arts Scholarship, Laurel Arts League, Laurel, MS
2012 Juror’s Award for Drawing, Mississippi Collegiate Art Competition Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS
2011 Starkville Arts Council Scholarship
2010 Eagle Scout, BSA Troop 45 Pushmataha Area Council, MS
Hannah McBroom 