Akinsanya Kambon

Akinsanya Kambon (born 1946, Sacramento, California) is an American artist whose multidisciplinary practice explores Black history, African diasporic memory, spiritual traditions, resistance, and liberation. Working across ceramics, sculpture, painting, drawing, and bronze, Kambon examines historical struggle and resilience through narrative vessels, wall plaques, and figurative forms that merge political storytelling with symbolic and spiritual imagery.  Kambon earned both a B.A. and an M.A. from California State University, Fresno, in 1974 and 1976, respectively. His work often engages social history, mythology, revolution, and collective memory, using clay and other materials to visualize histories of violence, survival, and Black self-determination across Africa and the Americas. Born Mark Teemer, he served in Vietnam as a Marine infantryman and combat illustrator before becoming Lieutenant of Culture for the Sacramento chapter of the Black Panther Party; those experiences remain central to the political and historical force of his practice.  His work has been exhibited at the Hammer Museum, Jack Shainman Gallery, Crocker Art Museum, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, and CARA in New York. He received the 2023 Mohn Award following the Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A.: Acts of Living exhibition. Kambon lives and works in Long Beach, California.