Voices of the Diaspora: The Artisans Behind the Canvas

Soly Cissé (1969-) is a Senegalese painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. Interested in duality he explores the tension between modernity and tradition, man and nature, and the spiritual and the secular. His painting practice is multi-modal, using brush, hand, and knife. His work is known for its thick brushstrokes and fantastical landscapes with animals, humans, and creatures abound. Growing up in Dakar during a time of transition and political unrest, art became a vehicle for social change. Cissé graduated from the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Dakar in 1996.

Sonia Boyce, OBE RA (1962- ) is a British-Caribbean visual artist from London, England. She works across painting, film, photography, print, sound and installation. Boyce's work invites the viewers to become active participants in art. She is interested in art as a social practice and the resulting dialogue. Over her career, she has collaborated with many artists, most notably during the British Black Art Movement in the 1980s.  Boyce is a Professor of Black Art and Design at the University of the Arts London. Boyce completed a Foundation Course in Art & Design at East Ham College of Art and Technology in 1980. She received a BA degree in Fine Art at Stourbridge College in 1983. 

Stefan Smith is an American painter and muralist. An accomplished muralist with a keen eye for detail and a deep appreciation for the human experience, Stefan’s work often combines elements of nature, such as foliage, plants, and humans. He seeks to demonstrate the transformative potential of creativity and leave a lasting impact, particularly in underserved communities.

Steven Schmid is a Bahamian multidisciplinary artist. He explores masculinity and otherness through his abstract portraits. Schmid uses collages and paintings to narrate his personal stories and tell a nuanced story of a kind of masculinity.  Schmid received his BFA in Film, Video and Integrated Media from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2016 and a MFA in Interdisciplinary Art, Media & Design from Ontario College of Art & Design University in 2022.

Stina Baudin is a Haitian-Canadian multidisciplinary textile artist. Her textile sculptures incorporate data, text, archival materials, and oral histories. Baudin's work makes connections among Black culture, geography, mythology, storytelling and architectural compositions.  Baudin studied at both Concordia University in Montreal and The Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium.

Sybil Coovi Handemagnon (1988- ) is a French multidisciplinary artist. With a starting point of Western photography archives, she interrogates the medium as a tool of truthful documentation. Through sculpture, video, and installation, Coovi Handemagnon works with the imprisoned “specters”, listening to them and creating connections and inability to categorize them. She is interested in the archival understanding and how meaning is continuously reinscribed. 

Tabitha Whitley (1987- ) is an American painter and printmaker. Whitley creates portraits celebrating Black life and joy. Many of her works feature nature - either flowers or vines.  Whitley received her MFA in Painting from the New York Academy of Art, New York, New York in 2011. She received her BFA in Painting from the  Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, New York in 2009.

Tadesse Mesfin (1953- ) is an Ethiopian painter. Mesfin is known for his scenes of women at the market or in other domestic settings. Using flat brushstrokes, he creates works that ask viewers to contemplate the interior lives of his many subjects.  Mesfin attended the Addis Ababa University School of Fine Arts and Design and the Repin Academy of Painting, Architecture & Sculpture. 

Tadáskía (1993- ) is a Brazilian artist whose practice spans photography, works on paper, installation, and performance. A common thread in her work is the desire to bring marginalized voices to the center. Other themes in her work are Black freedom, expression, and personhood. Swirling colors on expansive fantastical planes routinely make an appearance.  She received a degree in visual arts from Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and a master's degree in Education from Universidad Federal de Río de Janeiro. 

Taiye Idahor (1984- ) is a Nigerian artist working in collage, drawing, sculpture, and mixed media. She explores the historic and contemporary place of women in Nigerian society, with special attention to trade, beauty, the environment, and globalization. In recent years, hair has become an important aspect of her work.  Idahor received her Higher National Diploma (HND) in sculpture   Yaba College of Technology Lagos in 2007.