Voices of the Diaspora: The Artisans Behind the Canvas

Akinola Taoheed Olaitan (2000- ) is a Nigerian multidisciplinary artist. Many of his works feature faces against floral backgrounds.  Olaitan is currently pursuing a degree in Art Education at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka. 

Alanna Fields (1990- ) is an American mixed media artist preserving and examining queer history archival research. Her work includes text, painting, and photography to highlight the ways that queer individuals and histories have been hidden. Fields received her MFA in Photography from Pratt Institute. She holds a BA in Literature from Trinity Washington University. 

Alassane Koné (1995- ) is a Malian sculptor. Thread is a central part of his practice, as it is easier to manipulate than metal. Pulling from other disciplines, such as painting and drawing, Koné creates figurative threaded portraits.

Alexandre Arrechea (1970- ) is a Cuban multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans large-scale installations, sculptures, watercolor drawings, and videos. He is one of the founding members of the Cuban collective, Los Carpinteros, active between 1991 and 2003. The group toyed with the idea of dichotomies and often reimagined everyday objects into an imperfect, new form.  As a solo artist, he focuses on systems of power and surveillance. The connections between architecture, history, memory, and the Black body are all of interest to him. His public sculpture invites audience interaction.  Arrechea received a BFA from Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana in 1994. 

Alfred Amadu Conteh (1975- ) is an American sculptor, painter, printmaker, and mixed-media artist. His works explore the personal identity from multiple perspectives. He treats the surface of his work with materials such as battery acid, rust, and soil to reflect the lives of his sitters, many of whom do not have access to the "American dream". He critiques the material conditions of Black Americans who have been systematically neglected. He received his BFA from Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. He received his MFA from Georgia Southern University. 

Alioune Diagne (1985- ) is a Senegalese painter working in what he calls, a “figuro-abstro” style. He is inspired by calligraphy and uses that as his starting place. When viewing his work closely, one sees signs and shapes. Only when taking a step back does the full picture come into focus. Diagne's painting show a glimpse of daily life in Senegal, with scenes of fishermen, women at markets, and migrants. He also highlights ongoing wealth and resource disparity. 

Alma Thomas (1891-1978) was an American painter. Her colorful, abstract, mosaic-like paintings reference nature and art history. She was inspired by pointillism, the Washington Color School, and her mentor Loïs Mailou Jones to push herself. Her compositions reflect a deep belief in the power of color and its connection to beauty and goodness. Thomas had her first exhibition at Howard University at the age of 75.  In 1924 she became the first graduate of Howard University's art department.

Althea Murphy-Price is an American printmaker and sculpture. She uses lithography, stenciling methods, photography and 3D printing. Her work considers the centrality of hair in fashioning identity.  Murphy-Price received a B.A. from Spelman College, an M.A. from Purdue University and an M.F.A. from Tyler School of Art, Temple University.  

Amaryllis R. Flowers is a Puerto Rican artist working across installation, performance, video, sculpture, and works on paper. Flowers uses materials that have been associated as feminine or have oversaturated girl-like substances or colors. This allows her to assign a more positive association to materials that may be overlooked. Flowers is interested in fantasy, as a system of resistance and future-building emerges in her work. Embedded in the work is a sense of permeability that can not be categorized, a space with queer people freely and joyfully exist.   Flowers received her MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2019 and her BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 2014. 

Ameh Egwuh (1996- ) is a painter who participated in the inaugural edition of Rele Arts Foundation’s Young Contemporaries Bootcamp in 2019 and was selected in 2020 as part of Rele Arts Foundation Young Contemporaries. Egwuh studied Fine and Applied Art at Delta State University, Abraka, Delta State, Nigeria.