Voices of the Diaspora: The Artisans Behind the Canvas

Sadie Barnette (1984- ) is an American artist who works primarily with drawing, photography, and installation. Much of her work traces familial history and its mirror to largely American histories. This is evident in her project around her father's experience being survived by the FBI due to his involvement in the Black Panther Party. For Barnette history is something to be activated through research and the archives, illuminating oppressive legacies practiced in the United States.  Barnette received her BFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2006 and her MFA from the University of California, San Diego in 2012.

Sam Gilliam (1933-2022) was an American Postwar artist celebrated for his techniques in Color Field painting. One of his most recognizable innovations was his Drape sculpture paintings. These were works that existed beyond the boundaries of a canvas. This gave each work its own unique life and body. His dynamic and experimental approach to color and form has solidified his place as a pivotal figure in the evolution of contemporary art.  Gilliam received both his bachelor's and master's in painting from the University of Louisville in 1955 and in 1961 respectively. 

Samuel Fosso (1962- ) is a Cameroonian-born Nigerian photographer who works primarily in the Central African Republic. Fosso picked up photography as a young man, starting his studio at 13. Eventually, he turned the camera on himself and began the self-portraiture practice for which he is best known.  These early works highlight Fosso's interest in presentation and play. As his practice developed, he explored a growing interest in power and Black visual sovereignty and its manifestations via photography. 

Samuel Levi Jones (1978- ) is an artist based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Jone's work investigates systems of power and oppression through painting and assemblage. A material he uses as part of his part is law books. These allow him to engage directly with primary source material and documentary practices, as vestibules of political and social power.  Jones investigates themes of manipulation and the rejection of authority through his work.  Jones received a BA in communications studies from Taylor University and a BFA in photography from Herron School of Art and Design in 2009. He also received an MFA in Studio Art from Mills College in 2012.

Samuel Nnorom (b. 1990, Nigeria) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice traverses tapestry-like sculpture, textile reworking, and mixed media. Inspired by his early life sketching portraits in his father’s shoe shop and working with fabric scraps in his mother’s tailoring workshop, Nnorom identifies as a “custodian of material culture.” His signature forms—bubbled clusters of fabric-covered foam spheres—constitute what he terms the “fabric of society,” evoking social structure, memory, and community. 

Sandra Brewster (1973- ) is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist. Her early works focused on portraiture. Brewster's practice expanded to include drawings and metallic sculpture. Her practice explores identity and representation, particularly emphasizing Black identity within the Caribbean diaspora.  Brewster received her BFA in Painting and Drawing from York University in 1997. She received her Masters of Visual Studies - Studio from the University of Toronto in 2017. 

Sasha Huber (1975- ) is a visual artist of Swiss-Haitian heritage based in Helsinki, Finland. One of the significant influences on her artistic practice has been her collaboration with the Swiss-Haitian historian and activist Jean Casimir, who has researched the history of Josephine Bonaparte and her connection to Haiti. This collaboration led to the "Demounting Louis Agassiz" project, which explores the legacy of the Swiss naturalist, glaciologist and Louis Agassiz, a Harvard University Professor, known as a racist and proponent of scientific racism that advanced the false theory of hierarchy of intelligence existed among different racial groups, which emboldened the resolve of many pro-slavery white Americans to maintain slavery. Though photography, film, performance work Huber explores the lasting effects of colonialism on society. Colonialism's effect on the environment is of particular interest to her.  She has her MA in visual culture from Aalto University in Helsinki and is currently pursuing a practice-based PhD in artistic research at Zurich University of the Arts

Dominican-American artist Scherezade García creates immersive worlds where personal narrative intersects with collective memory. Working across installation, painting, printmaking, and sculpture, García weaves together devotional iconography, electric color palettes, and carefully chosen found materials—vintage suitcases that carry stories of departure, inner tubes that float between survival and play—to construct visual poems about displacement and belonging.

Sekai Machache (1989- ) is a Zimbabwean-Scottish photographer and performer. She also creates works on paper. Machache is interested in imagination and dreams. Her work teases out the role of the artist in developing liminal experiences for healing.  She received a degree from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee, Scotland, in 2012. 

Selma Burke (1900-1995) is an American sculptor. She discovered her love of the medium as a young child, feeling clay from riverbeds flow through her fingers. In the 1920s she moved to New York city from North Carolina where she became part of the Harlem Renaissance. She traveled to Europe twice, once in 1933 on a Rosenwald Fellowship and again in 1936. While in Paris, she met Henri Matisse who expressed enthusiasm for her work. Burke is best known for a bust portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, completed in 1944.  She took art classes at Sarah Lawerence College in New York Burke completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at Columbia University in 1941. 

Senga Nengudi (born September 18, 1943, Chicago, Illinois) is a pioneering American interdisciplinary artist whose work explores the body, movement, ritual, and the elasticity of form. Emerging in the 1970s within the Black avant-garde communities of Los Angeles and New York, Nengudi became known for her groundbreaking use of unconventional materials—particularly pantyhose, sand, and found objects—to create sculptures that respond to gravity, tension, and the physicality of lived experience. Her iconic R.S.V.P. series (1970s–ongoing) consists of nylon pantyhose stretched and weighted with sand, forming biomorphic, sagging structures that evoke the human body—especially the maternal body—and its vulnerability, resilience, and transformation. These works blur distinctions between sculpture and performance, as Nengudi frequently activated them through movement and collaboration with dancers. Throughout her career, she has emphasized process, improvisation, and ritual, drawing influence from African diasporic traditions, Japanese Gutai performance, and her own experiences of pregnancy and motherhood. Associated with the Studio Z collective in Los Angeles, Nengudi collaborated closely with artists such as David Hammons and Maren Hassinger, helping shape a generation of experimental Black conceptual practices. Her work challenges rigid definitions of minimalism and post-minimalism by introducing softness, Black embodiment, and spiritual resonance into sculptural discourse. In recent decades, Nengudi has received renewed international recognition, with major museum retrospectives and exhibitions highlighting her lasting influence on contemporary art. Her work is held in leading institutional collections worldwide, and she continues to be regarded as a critical figure in feminist, performance-based, and Black avant-garde art histories.

Shanequa Gay (1978- ) is an American multidisciplinary artist working across painting, installation, and photography. Gay is interested in counter-narratives, mythology, and an expansion of Black imagery. At the center of her work sits multiple universes that expand narratives around Black women.  Gay received her BA in Painting from Savannah College of Art and Design, AA in Graphic Design and Fashion Marketing from the Art Institute of Atlanta, and an MFA from Georgia State University.

Shani Crowe is an American photographer. Her work focuses on Black hair, its adornment and beauty rituals, and how they can foster connection. She is most known for creating intricate corn-rowed hairstyles, and then capturing them as large photographic portraits. Crowe received her BFA in film production from Howard University’s John H. Johnson School of Communications in 2011.

Shannon Bono (1995- ) is a British multidisciplinary artist, curator, and writer. She often uses oils, acrylics, and spray paints in her work. Bono is interested in centering Black womanhood and asserting it as a source of knowledge. Common reference points include African spirituality, Christian iconography, and Renaissance art. Her various mediums mix meld  Bono received her MA in Art & Science from Central Saint Martins University, her Associate Fellowship in higher education from the University of the Arts London and an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art.

Shinique Smith (1971- ) is an American artist known for expansive practice including fabric sculptures and abstract paintings incorporating calligraphy and collage. Pulling from personal histories, her work is a documentation of "things".  Smith received a BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art, She earned a MA in education from Tufts University in 2000 and a MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2003.

Sidney Blu is a Nigerian-born contemporary artist whose work spans painting (often large-scale canvases) and sculptural forms. His art is deeply personal and autobiographical, frequently addressing themes of identity, mental health, and personal struggle. Blu’s creative practice is rooted in storytelling and self-reflection, often using his own experiences as mnemonic material for his visual narratives. 

Simphiwe Mbunyuza (1989- ) is a South African ceramicist and sculptor. His sculptures draw heavily from his Xhosa heritage. He uses the coiling technique used for generations by the Xhosa people. Mbunyuza uses all of the sculptures’ surface to recreate cultural scenes, mimic landscapes, and add appendages that represent animal, human, or decorative flourishes.  Mbunyuza received his Masters of Fine Art from The University of Oklahoma and a Fine Art degree from Walter Sisulu University in South Africa.

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. 

Sonia Gomes (b. 1948, Caetanópolis, Minas Gerais, Brazil) is a Brazilian sculptor and assemblage artist renowned for transforming found textiles, fabrics, cords, driftwood, and everyday objects into dynamic, large-scale sculptures. Her work combines abstraction with tactile, organic forms and draws heavily on Afro-Brazilian traditions, memory, and cultural heritage. Through stitching, tying, and suspending materials, Gomes explores themes of resilience, transformation, and the histories embedded in discarded or overlooked objects. Her sculptures have been featured in major international exhibitions and biennials, and she is recognized as one of the leading contemporary artists engaging with materiality and Afro-Brazilian identity today.

Sophia Lacroix (1969- ) is a Haitian painter. Lacroix creates oil paintings depicting everyday life in Haiti. Her vibrant, lush scenes show a photo-realistic view of the island are intertwined with a loving nostalgia for home. From still lifes to portraits, Lacroix's paintings are portal into life in Haiti. 

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.

Stephanie Mei-Ling is an American photographer. Her work explores identity, culture, and community. She builds in mediation as a creative tool.  Mei-Ling received her degree in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley.

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.

Sungi Mlengeya (b. 1991, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) is a self-taught painter who works primarily in acrylic on canvas. Her works are marked by minimalism and strong use of negative space. She often depicts dark figures—mostly Black women—in black or brown tones against white backgrounds. These portraits evoke strength, calm, presence and pay tribute to the women in her life, exploring balance between stillness and movement. 

Suzanne Jackson (b. 1944, St. Louis, Missouri) is an American painter, poet, and educator whose practice spans more than five decades. Emerging in Los Angeles in the 1960s, she founded Gallery 32, an influential artist-run space that supported Black artists during the Black Arts Movement. Jackson’s work has evolved from figurative and symbolic compositions to materially innovative abstractions composed of poured acrylic “skins” that detach from traditional canvas supports. Her atmospheric, sculptural paintings explore gesture, color, ecology, and spirituality while expanding the boundaries between painting and installation.

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. 

T. Eliott Mansa (born 1978) is a Miami-born multidisciplinary artist whose sculptural practice draws on African diasporic ritual, memorial traditions, and the aesthetics of Black mourning and resilience. Incorporating materials such as fabric, beads, flowers, latex paint, found objects, and devotional iconography, Mansa creates shrine-like assemblages that honor victims of racial violence and explore the emotional landscape of grief, care, and cultural survival. His work merges Southern Black vernacular practices, Yoruba cosmologies, and contemporary sculptural forms to build spaces of remembrance and spiritual reckoning. Mansa holds an MFA from Yale University and has exhibited widely throughout South Florida and nationally.

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. 

Tanda Francis is an American artist who created monumental sculptures that aim to change the representation of people in the African diaspora. Much of her work includes large faces and heads. Francis is inspired by rituals and traditions of ancient cultures to help facilitate an understanding of contemporary cultures.  Francis studied graphic design at Drexel University.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh (1985- ) is an American painter, illustrator, and mixed media artist. Fazlalizadeh's work engages deeply with community engagement and the public sphere. Her site-specific work considers how people, particularly women, queer folks, and Black and brown people, experience race and gender in their immediate environment.  Fazlalizadeh received her BFA from the University of the Arts in 2007.

Tessa Mars (1985- ) is a Haitian artist working across painting and installation. She explores gender, history, and tradition in her practice. Combining painting and sculpture, Mars prompts viewers to consider the Haitian landscape and the geography and its lessons. Using the Haitian Revolution as her starting point, Mars investigates resistance and survival.  Mars received her Bachelor's degree in Visual Arts at Rennes 2 University in France in 2006. 

Theaster Gates (1973- ) is an American artist who works within social practice installation. Gates has a deep interest in urban planning and land development. Through performance, sculpture, and installation, he explores "forgotten" spaces and underserved neighborhoods and works to revitalize them.   Gates received his BS from Iowa State University in 1996. He received his MA from the University of Cape Town in 1998 and his MS from Iowa State University in 2006. 

Thomas J. Price (1981- ) is a British multidisciplinary artist working across sculpture, works on paper, film, and performance.   Price's work confronts prejudices around representation and identity, foregrounding the innate humanity we all possess.  Price studied at Chelsea College of Art and the Royal College of Art.

Tiffanie Delune (1988- ) is a Belgo-Congolese French artist working across painting, textiles, and works on paper. Through a love of storytelling, she hopes to evoke emotions through intuitive swirling forms. Her work is embedded with symbols of femininity and spirituality. 

Tiffany Alfonseca (1994- ) is a Dominican-American mixed-media artist and contemporary painter based in the Bronx, New York. Her work weaves together beauty, diversity, and multilingualism to highlight the diversity of Afro-Latine and Black experiences. She is interested in the concept of "double consciousness" coined by W.E.B. DuBois and its relation to the experience of Black and Brown people. The bright and vibrant, pink, blue, and green palate she often uses in her work references her childhood memories in the Dominican Republic but also the Black and Brown joy she hopes to capture.  Alfonseca received her BFA at the School of Visual Arts in 2020.

Tiona Nekkia McClodden (born 1981, Blytheville, Arkansas) is an American interdisciplinary artist based in Philadelphia. Working across film, video, sculpture, sound, and installation, McClodden’s practice explores race, gender, sexuality, spirituality, and the afterlives of Black genealogies. Her work is characterized by ritual, archival inquiry, and interdisciplinary forms that merge personal devotion with social critique. Her projects frequently engage Black diasporic spiritual practices, embodied research, and narrative biomythography to examine how histories of colonialism, Christianity, and kinship shape contemporary life. Through documentary film, experimental video, sculptural objects, and sound installations, McClodden constructs works that move between intimate ritual and broader cultural analysis. In works such as I prayed to the wrong god for you., she has merged her artistic practice with her spiritual life as a priestess of Ogun, tracing diasporic devotion across the United States, Cuba, and Nigeria.  McClodden was selected for the 2019 Whitney Biennial and received that year’s Bucksbaum Award. She was a resident at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in 2018 and is the founder and director of Conceptual Fade in Philadelphia. Her work has been presented at institutions and venues including The Shed, Performance Space New York, Recess, 52 Walker, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, and is held in public collections including the Museum of Modern Art and the Rennie Museum.

Titus Kaphar (b. 1976, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA) is an American painter, sculptor, filmmaker and installation artist whose multidisciplinary work interrogates the representation of Black subjects in Western art-history and the shaping of memory through image. He deconstructs canonical visual forms—cutting, tarring, draping and reconfiguring paintings and sculptures—to reveal hidden narratives, marginalized figures and the mechanics of exclusion. His practice proposes an amended, more inclusive account of history in which Black lives are visible, and visual language is expanded. 

Tizta Berhanu (1991- ) is an Ethiopian painter. Her figurative pieces explore intimacy and emotion. Vibrant and subdued colors cushion her subjects. Her paintings are typically composed of various hues of a singular color, heightening the emotional reality of the work.  Berhanu received her BFA in Painting from Addis Ababa University, Alle School of Fine Arts and Design in 2019. 

Tomashi Jackson (1980- ) is an American multimedia artist working across printmaking, sculpture, photography, video, fibrework, and performance. Jackson's assemblages are entrenched in a deep research process centered around systemic abuse, disenfranchisement, and displacement of communities of color. She connects histories and archives with to present moment.  Jackson received her BFA from Cooper Union in 2010. She received her MS from the MIT School of Architecture and Planning in 2012 and her MFA in Painting and Printmaking from the Yale School of Art in 2016.

Torkwase Dyson (1973- ) is an American multidisciplinary artist working across drawing, painting, installation, sculpture, and sound. Her work is inspired by her theory of Black Compositional Thought. Describing herself as a painter, her abstract works explore the relationship between continuity between ecology, infrastructure, and architecture and how black and brown people negotiate space.   Dyson received her BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1999. She received her MFA in painting/printmaking from Yale School of Art in 2003.

Toyin Ojih Odutola (1985- ) is a Nigerian-American artist who creates works on paper. She is interested in skin texture and has reduced her materials to the basics, such as ballpoint pens, pencils, pastels, and charcoal. This results in a very distinctive mark-making style. Developed over months, narratives that emerge through a series resemble a chapter book. Recently, she has created works around landscapes, architecture, and domestic interiors.  Odutola received a BA from the University of Alabama, Huntsville, and an MFA from the California College of the Arts. 

Tsedaye Makonnen (b. 1984, Washington, D.C., U.S.) is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, researcher, and cultural producer. Makonnen’s practice weaves together Black feminist theory, site-specific research, performance, installation, sculpture, textile work, film, and curatorial projects. Her work is deeply informed by her identities as the daughter of Ethiopian immigrants, a mother, doula, and sanctuary builder. 

Tunji Adeniyi-Jones (1992- ) works across painting, drawing, and printmaking to explore his Nigerian Yoruba background. With a focus on contemporary perceptions of the Black body, Adeniyi-Jones depicts figures captured mid-dance as a tool to illuminate the significance of body language and dance in a continent with numerous spoken languages. Androgynous forms, deities, and animals populate his work in a celebration and acknowledgment of African identity.  Adeniyi-Jones received his BFA from The Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford in 2014 and his MFA in Painting and Printmaking from the Yale School of Art in 2017. 

Turiya Magadlela (1978- ) is a South African artist using textiles with charged stories to create work. Her materials range from pantyhose to correctional service uniforms. Magadlela's work focuses on her experiences with womanhood and motherhood and the loaded history of Black South Africans. Magadlela received her Certificate in Fine Arts from Funda Community College in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1998. She received her National Diploma of Fine Arts from University of Johannesburg, South Africa in 2001. 

Tyler Mitchell (1995- ) is an American, Atlanta born and based fine art and commercial photographer. Much of his fine photography is focused on Black leisure and joy. He seeks to create a "Black utopic vision" with an emphasis on Black enjoying and existing outdoors. His bold colors are moody and contemplative. In 2018 Mitchell was commissioned to photograph Beyoncé for the Vogue September edition. In doing so, he became one of the youngest photographers and the first Black photographer to photograph a Vogue cover.