Voices of the Diaspora: The Artisans Behind the Canvas

Binta Ayofemi is an American visual artist. Her work primarily takes the form of architecture and sculpture. She is informed by Afrofuturism and groups such as the Black Panthers and the Black Shakers to reimagine both public and private spaces. One of her goals is to transform otherwise abandoned spaces into meccas for Black culture and art. Ayofemi's work explores the political dimesons of space and occupancy.  

Bisa Butler (1973- ) is an American textile artist, originally trained as a painter.  ⁠Her quilts are vibrant, colorful portraits of historic and contemporary figures. Despite textiles being her medium, her approach is multidisciplinary. The composition of her quilts is informed by photographs and she draws with her thread, adding patterns to the finished quilt top. She uses a mix of Ghanaian fabrics, Nigerian batiks, and South African fabrics. Butler was a high school art teacher for 10 years in the Newark Public Schools and three years at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. Butler received her BFA from Howard University in 1995. She received her MA from Montclair State University in 2005. 

Bony Ramirez (1996- ) is a Dominican artist whose vibrant figures of varying proportions, shades, and composition show insight into his Caribbean roots. Bony’s practice has expanded to include using various objects and materials to create. Ramirez creates “mixed medium portraits” that portray contemporary Caribbean life and the underlying European colonialist history that remains in the psyche of individuals. Ramirez pulls from many inspirations such as Italian mannerism, Renaissance portraiture, and children’s illustrations. 

Buhlebezwe Siwani (1987- ) is a South African performance and installation artist. Siwani is interested in the Black female experience in South Africa. Incorporating everyday objects, many of her works highlight the racism and sexism that Black women experience. She titles her works in isiXhosa and isiZulu communicating to the viewer that she is decentering Anglo-centric languages.  Siwani received her BAFA at the Wits School of Arts in Johannesburg in 2011 and her MFA at the  Michaelis School of Fine Arts in 2015. 

C. Rose Smith (1995- ) is an American photographer who is interested in photography’s role in constructing identity. Her work subverts social norms as it interrogates history.  Smith received her MFA in Photography & Related Materials from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2024 and her BFA in Photography from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2017. 

Caitlin Cherry (1987- ) is an American artist who works in painting, sculpture, and mixed media. Her work centers the Black female experience through technological inquiry and digital manipulation. Interested in how digital interfaces influence present female identity she draws from art history, race, gender, and economic studies. Cherry's resulting portraits and landscapes are iridescent canvases.    Cherry received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2010 and her MFA from Columbia University in 2012. 

Calida Rawles (1976- ) is an American painter. She creates large paintings of Black individuals floating and swimming in water. These scenes gift Black people joy and ease that often is not present. Her work also evokes a sense of mourning, granting the viewers and her subjects a vessel for heavy emotions.  Rawles received a B.A. from Spelman College, Atlanta in 1998 and an M.A. from New York University in 2000. 

Carlos Bunga (1976- ) is a Portuguese sculptor known for his installations out of mass-produced materials, like cardboard, duct tape, and home paint. Bunga is interested in the relationship between the body and space. He investigates architecture and its connection to power structures. His works on paper are closely related to his sculptures and installations. Relationality is an important aspect of his work--doing and undoing, unmaking and remaking micro and macro, investigation and conclusion--are conceptual frameworks he thinks utilize.   Bunga received a BA in Fine Arts from Escola Superior de Arte e Design in 2000.

Carlos Martiel (1989- ) is a Cuban installation and performance artist. He explores racism, immigration, gender, and the legacies of colonialism. With his body as the starting place, he visualizes the ongoing violence that Black people face.  Martiel graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts in 2009. 

Carolyn Mims Lawrence (1940- ) is an American visual artist, teacher, and original member of AfriCOBRA, an artist collective founded in 1968 in Chicago. The group sought to develop a unique aesthetic to empower and uplift Black communities. Her work uses bright greens, yellows, and blues showing positive values such as family unity and social cohesion. Lawrence was one of the artists commissioned for the Wall of Respect in Chicago. She was an art teacher at Kenwood Academy for most of her career. Lawrence felt it was important to inspire the incoming generation of artists.  She received a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s degree in 1968 from the Illinois Institute of Technology.