Voices of the Diaspora: The Artisans Behind the Canvas

Nick Cave (1959- ) is an American sculptor, dancer, performance artist, and educator best known for his Soundsuits. Cave initially created the Soundsuit in direct response to the police beating of Rodney King in 1991. The suits act as armor for the body, concealing race, gender, and class, forcing the viewer to look without judgment. They are made of an assemblage of fabric, toys, noisemakers, and other objects. He also creates mixed media sculptures and installations.  Cave received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1982. He received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1988. Additionally, he received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in June 2022. 

Nina Chanel Abney (1982- ) is an American visual artist. During her career, Abney's style continued to evolve. She incorporated more complex compositions and began experimenting with larger-scale works and mixed-media installations. Her pieces explore themes such as identity, social justice, and societal power dynamics. Much of her work comprises of bright, graphic elements composed with an angular composition. Abney attended Augustana College in where she received a BFA with a dual major in studio art and computer science in 2004. She also attended the Chicago Art Institute and the Parsons School of Design where she received an MFA in 2007. A

Nneka Jones (1997- ) is an American multidisciplinary artist interested in painting, drawing, sculpting, and embroidering. Her work responds to social and environmental issues. Her artwork advocates for the protection of women of color and is most known for realistic embroidered portraits. Jones’ ongoing “Target” series confronts the trafficking of girls and women in the Caribbean.  Jones received a BFA from the University of Tampa in 2020. 

Nona Faustine is a Brooklyn-born photographer and visual artist known for her powerful exploration of race, history, and identity. Her work confronts the legacy of slavery and systemic racism in America, often using her own body in historically significant locations to evoke deep reflection on the past's impact on the present. Faustine’s art challenges viewers to consider the untold stories embedded in public spaces and monuments. One of her most notable series, White Shoes, features self-portraits taken at sites tied to New York’s history of slavery, such as Wall Street and City Hall. In this series, Faustine reclaims these spaces, highlighting the erasure of Black history in everyday environments. Another impactful work, They Tagged the Land with Trophies and Institutions from Their Rapes and Conquests, explores how colonization and violence are etched into landscapes and institutions. Faustine’s work has been exhibited in prominent institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. She has received numerous accolades, including the 2021 Anonymous Was A Woman Award and the 2019 Finalist Award for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Her photography continues to spark conversations about memory, representation, and the power of art to challenge historical narratives.

Nontsikelelo Mutiti (1982- ) is a Zimbabwean visual artist and educator. She takes a conceptual view of publishing, archiving practices, and institution building. She approaches books as a time-based medium that physically engages the viewer. As her educator, she is interested in systems of communication and learning that pre-date colonial frameworks of the written word in Zimbabwe.  Mutiti holds a diploma in Multimedia from the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts (ZIVA) and an MFA from the Yale School of Art, with a concentration in Graphic Design. 

Nyancho NwaNri is a Gambian-Nigerian photographer. NwaNri's work focuses on the environment, social issues, languages, and history.

Olyseye works across sculpture and photography. He is deeply interested in the Black experience. Oluseye coined the term "diasporic debris", to describe the artifacts, discarded materials and found objects he collects during his travels. He believes that Blackness is something unfixed and ever-changing and so much must his practice, blending the contemporary and historical.  Oluseye received a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and a Masters of Science in Entrepreneurship from Bayes Business School, University of London, UK. 

Omar Victor Diop (1980-) is a Senegalese photographer. Diop is both a fashion and fine arts photographer. At one point in time, he produced seventy percent of Dakar's commercial advertising. His fine art photographs meld photography with other art forms, including textile design, fashion design, and creative writing. Serving as subject, his portraits explore historical events or model him after African leaders. Additionally, environmentally is explore through his work.  graduated from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris in France. 

Pamina Sebastião (1988- ) is an Angolan multidisciplinary artist working with video, drawing, collage, and photography. One of their activist avenues is their art, interrogating coloniality and centering queer experiences.  Sebastião received a Master's in International Law and Relations with a focus on African Human Rights System from Lisbon University, Portugal in 2015 and a Law degree from Catholic University, Angola in 2011. 

Patricia Encarnación (1991- ) is a Dominican multimedia artist based in New York. She works with video, photography, and sculpture. Her work investigates the tourist and consumerist gaze that is often directed at the Caribbean. Ultimately she explores the lasting effects colonialism on the Caribbean and Latin America through everyday objects and the myth of the “tropical”. Encarnación received an AAS degree in Illustration and Fine Arts from Altos de Chavon, the School of Design. She then was awarded a full-tuition scholarship to complete her BFA at Parsons, The New School of Design, New York, in 2014. She then received a full-tuition scholarship for the graduate program in the Caribbean Studies concentration in Museum Studies at NYU, where she graduated in 2022.