Artist Statement

My work portrays the ordinary grace of the contemporary Black experience by blending elements from hip-hop and urban culture with art history and religious iconography. In showcasing divine Black beauty, I offer contemporary images that are positive and spiritual to counter long-held narratives applied to representations of Blackness. Drawing on canons and iconographies that have historically concentrated sanctity, prestige, and purity within a narrow ideal, I re-seat my figures in those positions. I call this process overwriting the archive—a futurity practice that writes forward by inscribing new images into inherited visual memory.

This project is rooted in the realities of cultural loss and ancestral rupture. For many Black Americans, the legacies of slavery and the transatlantic trade have left a disconnect from lineage: family histories often halt after a few generations, and even extended searches rely on DNA results that only approximate regions of origin. That distance generates grief and a desire for reconnection. Some pursue more Afrocentric identifications with cultures that resonate, even absent direct genealogical proof. My work studies these manifestations of grief and the attempts at reconnection while honoring ever-present ancestors and their endurance within collective cultural memory. Overwriting the archive, here, means repairing connections by composing images that carry forward lineages interrupted on paper but alive in practice.

Rarely is the Black body depicted as a manifestation of the divine. Popular culture tends to instrumentalize Black imagery for social or political ends. In my practice, I remove socio-political signifiers so the figures cannot be read through wealth, class, or station. Body language and facial expression draw attention, inviting viewers into conversation and returning interpretive responsibility to their own assumptions. The images resist reduction and surface implicit bias without didactic cues—another mode of overwriting the archive.

Through drawing, ephemeral installation, video, and digital media, I connect concepts across time, space, and race. No culture holds exclusive claim to the human range of feeling, yet some artistic expressions have been historically privileged while others have been undervalued. By placing expressions from traditions often treated as incompatible into deliberate relation, my work underscores that respect for difference begins with recognizing the divinity present in those who appear different. In doing so, it overwrites the archive toward futurity—contributing images that make room for what comes next.

Cirriculum Vitae

Education 

2020      California State University, Northridge, Northridge, CA   

M.F.A. with Distinction, Drawing

2007      Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD

­ M.A., Community Arts

­ Americorps NCCC Team Member with over 1500 hours served

­2004      Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY

­ B.F.A, Painting

Founding Member of Big Brother Organization (BBO, LLC), a community building, mentorship, and student retention organization

Exhibitions & Presentations/Conferences

Solo & Two-Person Exhibitions:

2025      NEGUS WEIGHTING ON A MIRACLE, McDonough Museum of Art, Youngstown State Univ., Youngstown, OH

2025      THE ARTIST IS IN WINTER ARTIST RESIDENCY, Firelands Association for the Visual Arts (FAVA), Oberlin, OH

2024      WORTH A NEGUS WAIT IN GOLD, Akron Soul Train, Akron, OH

2016      THE MANY FACES OF MESSIAH JONES, Rialto Center for the Arts, Georgia State Univ., Atlanta, GA

2014      THE LOST YEARS OF MESSIAH JONES, Ages 13 to 33, Auburn Avenue Research Library, Atlanta, GA

2012      REFLECTION & IDENTITY, Community Folk Art Center, Syracuse, NY

Group Exhibitions:

2027      State of the Art III, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR

2026      Lake Effect: Artists from Cleveland Now, Cleveland Museum of Art Transformer Station, Cleveland, OH

2025      Outlined in Black, Akron Soul Train, Akron, OH

2025      Medium Rare, Richard D. Baron Gallery, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH

2025      Bare my Soul, Norwest Gallery, Detroit, MI

2025      The Nature of Healing, Cleveland Botanical Garden, Cleveland, OH

2024      Outlined in Black, Akron Soul Train, Akron, OH

2024      Roll Call, Richard D. Baron Gallery, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH

2024      Heavy Melanin, Norwest Gallery, Detroit, MI

2024      Bare my Soul, Deep Roots Experience, Cleveland, OH

2024      The Body, The Host: HIV/AIDS and Christianity, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH

2023      Assembly, Richard D. Baron Gallery, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH

2023      Outlined in Black, Bierce Library Galleries, The University of Akron, Akron, OH

2022      Labor & Learning, Richard D. Baron Gallery, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH

2021      In On and Around, California State University Northridge Art Galleries, Los Angeles, CA

2020      Black Heritage and the Brotherhood of Man, Steffen Thomas Museum of Art, Buckhead, GA

2019      Made in California, City of Brea Gallery, Brea, CA

2019      Greater Los Angeles MFA, Cal State Long Beach, Long Beach, CA

2018      Prizm Art Fair, Alfred I. DuPont Building, Miami, FL

2018      Art Without Borders, Cal State Florence, Florence, Italy

2018      CAA MFA Exhibition, Cal State LA Fine Arts Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2018      4th MFA Biennial, City of Brea Gallery, Brea, CA

2017      (Re)Composition: A Call and Response between Artists and Writers, CSUN West Gallery, Northridge, CA

2016      ART CRUSH: Burnaway Annual Fundraiser and Auction, Mason Fine Art, Atlanta, GA

2015      FOR THE LOVE OF DANCE: National Black Arts Festival Annual Gala, Atlanta, GA

2015      GATHERED: Georgia Artists Selecting Georgia Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta, GA

2015      ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, Part 2, City of Ink Gallery, Atlanta, GA

2014      THE ART OF RE-MEMORY: Alumni Artists 1965 – 2014, Community Folk Art Center, Syracuse, NY

2014      REMEMBERING TRAYVON: A Community Collective Exhibition, Hammonds House Museum, Atlanta, GA

2012      RUINS & REBIRTH, Burnaway Annual Fundraiser, The Granite Room, Atlanta, GA

2009      THE POWER OF WOMEN, The Bench, Atlanta, GA

2007      COMMUNITY RESPONSES, At Freedom’s Door: Challenging Slavery in MD, Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, Baltimore, MD

2006      TWENTY-THREE RESOLUTIONS, Fox 3 Gallery, Baltimore, MD

2004      AIDS AWARENESS FUNDRAISER, Embassy of Ethiopia, Washington, DC

2004      5 ARTISTS, 5 WAYS, Community Folk Art Center, Syracuse, NY

Employment Experience 

2022 – present Assistant Professor of Design & Black Visual Studies

Oberlin College & Conservatory – Oberlin, OH

2020 – 2022        Assistant Professor of Art & Visual Culture, drawing & painting

Bates College – Lewiston, ME

2018 – 2019        Graduate Teaching Associate, Instructor of Record

California State University Northridge – Los Angeles, CA

2013 – 2017        Instructor of Art, Visual Arts Program Director

Morehouse College – Atlanta, GA

Spring 2013        Art Instructor

                                    Rock Chapel Elementary School, Dekalb County Public Schools – Lithonia, GA

2010 – 2011        In School Suspensions Monitor

                                    B.E.S.T. Academy Middle School, Atlanta Public Schools – Atlanta, GA

2007 – 2010        Digital Arts Teacher & Discipline, Admissions, & Recruiting Coordinator

                                    Tech High Charter School, Atlanta Public Schools – Atlanta, GA

2006 – 2007        Assistant Project Manager, “At Freedom’s Door: Challenging Slavery in Maryland”

                                    Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture – Baltimore, MD

2003 – 2005        Curatorial Assistant

                                    Community Folk Art Center, Syracuse University – Syracuse, NY

 

Conferences/Presentations:

2025      Bare my Soul: Art as Non-Violent Resistance, Another World is Possible Summit, Coretta Scott King Center at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, OH

2018      Re/Defining Black Masculinity: The Question Bridge Project, KU History of Art Graduate Symposium, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

 

Collections

Community Folk Art Center, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY

Dr. Kheli Willets, Houston, TX

                  Dr. Linda E. Carty, Syracuse, NY

Janis A. Mayes, Syracuse, NY

                  Vicki & John Palmer, Atlanta, GA

                  Don M. Roman, Atlanta, GA

                  Jay & Kathie McClure, Atlanta, GA

                  Dr. Noelle Chaddock, Nichols, NY

                  Tonya Stapleton, Detroit, MI

                  David Ramsey, Cleveland, OH

                  Anthony Pernell-McGee, Cleveland, OH