Born on July 29th, 1986, Raji Mohammed Babatunde is a Lagos-based Nigerian visual artist. He graduated in Fine and Applied Art from Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education in Ijanikin and he holds a bachelor’s in fine art and Education from the University of Nigeria in Nsukka. Raji is an impressionist who expresses himself in different drawing and painting mediums.

He started exploring his interest in art while in primary school by drawing comics and cars in all his notebooks. Today, his art portrays human relationships, memories of events, and facial expressions suggesting innocence, beauty, expectations, calm, directions, etc., with the aim of making viewers of his works connect to a particular moment in their lives, mostly pleasurable and unforgettable times.

Raji has been painting for over 10 years. His work is suggestive of his own childhood and his subjects, mostly children, take him back to this period in his life. Growing up in Africa he has seen the exploitation of women and young girls. His paintings capture their innocence and their beauty that he feels need to be protected at all cost. Raji has a very calm and reflective demeanor and connects to his subjects and work very deeply. As an artist, his use of light and dark creates depth and mood in imagery. Chiaroscuro, dramatism and his outstanding mastery of illumination produces different gradients and hues in his subjects. It bestows within the painting 3-dimensionality making the subjects look deeper and more real.

Gigi Bolden is one of few artists who are able to work across a wide spectrum of cultural images, creating reflections of African-American people. Most evident in

Gigi's art and her personality is her passion. She has an attraction to nudes as subject and she states..."the human form is one of the most beautiful of God's creations." She studied at Columbus College of Art and Design and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit,

Gigi’s art is inspired primarily by Romare Bearden, Benny Andrews, William Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, Charles McGee, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. She prefers to work in acrylics and mixed media on paper, wood, or canvas, but is also adept at watercolor, collage, paper sculpture, stained glass, and airbrush.

Ricky Calloway was reared in Opelika, Alabama.

The special gift to create artwork was revealed to him as a young child. After encouragement from his mother and art teacher, Ricky decided to pursue a career in art.

After graduating from Opelika High School in 1978, Ricky was accepted into the art program at Alabama State University. Painting became his specialty. However, he is equally versatile in other media as well. He received the B.A. degree in art from Alabama State University during the spring quarter of 1984

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While attending A.S.U, he received numerous art awards, academic awards, and graduated with honors. Shortly after working three years as a graphic designer and screen-printer, Ricky was accepted into the Master of Fine Arts program at Florida State University in 1987. During the summer semester of 1989, Mr. Calloway was awarded the Master of Fine Arts degree from Florida State University in the concentrated areas of drawing and painting.

Two University Fellowships were awarded to him while attending F.S.U. Several of his creative achievements are painting the portraits of Fort Valley State University past and present Presidents and created a large mural for The National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African American Culture at Alabama State University. Furthermore, he gives workshops locally and nationally in the concentrated areas of serigraphy and painting.

Kimmy Cantrell enjoys developing fresh variations on several recurring themes: faces, still lifes, nudes and fish. Kimmy uses many forms to tell his stories, from free standing sculptures to still life collages. He uses asymmetry to challenge traditional definitions of beauty. “I want to show the beauty within flaws,” he explains. 

“Imperfections tell stories that are far more compelling than perfection.”

Through his fragmented flowers and fish for instance, he recounts fond childhood memories of his grandmother (Bama) who was a very important figure in his upbringing. Bama taught Kimmy lessons of perseverance, living within your means and how to be responsible for your own success.

He has also used his nudes and faces as a platform for political, and social commentary. His titles are notable as they are often powerful and poignant reflecting turbulent times.

His work has been exhibited at galleries, festivals, and museums nationally as well as represented in private collections abroad, including Sweden, Italy, France, and England. He has exhibited at art Expo in NY, Miami, during Art Basel, and currently shows at Sausalito, St. Louis Arts Festival and the Philadelphia Museum Show.

Kimmy Cantrell currently resides in Atlanta Ga.

Andra Natascha Daans (1962) was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Her mother is Dutch, her father is from Suriname. Her roots are visible from the outside and for her tangible from the inside.
Andra Daans starts her art career at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (1983-1985). She continues her study in Rome at the Free Academy of Fine Arts (1985-1989). During that period, she is invited to take part at The International Biennale, Malta (1987

With my artwork, I want to reflect on the life of enslaved and or poor children, without losing reality, giving them an expressive identity.  In my new series of paintings, I want to show the painful history of slavery. The last few years I have been focusing on developing a new contemporary style. In addition, I searched for a theme that gives me the opportunity to develop a clearly recognizable style. The result is the series ‘Portraits of Life’, based on true stories. Without losing reality, giving them an expressive identity. My intent is to elicit an emotional response without dictating to the viewer what they should or shouldn't be feeling.

Valarie is a mixed media artist inspired by the relationships between cultures, how people are viewed in our society, race, and socioeconomics. In her works, she tries to convey to the viewer, that regardless of one's ideologies, race, culture, and financial status, we all come into life the same and leave the same.

She wants the viewer to understand that due to circumstances beyond our control, our stories may differ from place to place. She intends to show her audience works of art that depict these various stories that hopefully make us all a little more understanding, tolerant, and less fearful of each other and ultimately, respect each other. She wants the viewer to engage themselves with her subject and process.

She uses the mediums of paint and clay to help her illustrate the variety of topics she feels are dear to her experiences and values. Using these materials allows the beauty of the paint or form to look forward and intrusive. Through her art, she hopes to create and educate life experiences and the mindfulness of others.

Valarie has a BFA from the College for Creative Studies (CCS), Detroit, Michigan, and has studied ceramics and sculpting abroad in Florence, Italy. She has a strong passion for art and believes in continuously working on improving her skills as an artist. She has worked for over twenty years as an automotive clay sculptor where she sculpts both interior and exterior automotive designs. Her life is very busy, and she spends all of her free time in her Eastside Detroit art studio where she creates new works of art and mentors young upcoming artists. Herplans include offering art workshops to her clients. Her works can be seen online at; artbyvaldavis.com. Her email address is [email protected].

This internationally recognized artist is currently represented in The Netherlands and Philadelphia. Recent projects include the 25 YEAR ART RETROSPECTIVE of EASTON MUSIC INSPIRED ART in The Netherlands during the 2017 North Sea Jazz Festival. Easton has created Album covers for Blue Note Records and custom artwork for the popular performance artist and singer FKA Twigs. Easton also has a 17 year history of live painting during American and European Jazz festivals!  He has recently appeared on Dutch Televison discussing the importance of Jazz and Blues art in African American heritage. Also in 2017 as featured artist in “My Home is Not Your Backyard “ at The Rush Arts Foundation in Brooklyn NY seeking to create a visual dialogue that highlights the reality of Caribbean societies as opposed to how they portrayed by the media and other sources. The artist also exhibited sculpture in 2017 as part of the exhibit “My Home is Not Your Backyard “ in Barbados Grand Salle Gallery & Annex

Ellis is an award-winning art director and established artist with a professional career spanning over three decades and two continents. His collaboration with a variety of industry leaders has resulted in some of the world's recognizable brands. His most inspired artwork is channeled from his experiences growing up in the Hartford community and understanding all aspects of classic design and urban culture. Stylistically, his recent work is born from a pursuit of digital medium and fine art pieces that reflect his upbringing and background. 

Over the course of his career Ellis has consulted and produced world-class commercial design solutions. His originality and creativity are well known and sought after by collectors, peers, and recognized with countless awards from leading design authorities in the art world.

Mikel Elam is a visual artist working primarily as a painter. His work focuses on storytelling through memory and dreams using the fragments of face and figure to convey information and his ideals about world culture.

Mikel attended the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. He received his BA degree in Studio Arts/Painting. He went on to study at the School of the Visual Arts in New York City. Mikel’s work has been featured in international publications and media. Mikel worked for five years as a traveling assistant to jazz musician Miles Davis. He also assisted Mr. Davis in achieving his visual arts aspirations as a painter.

“I am a visual artist interested in the contrast of history and the concepts of futurism. I express my ideals through abstracting the figure. In fact, I like to think of myself as an Afro-futurist. I use classic painting techniques interspersed with a mix medium of collage, found objects, assorted ephemera to convey messages about human equality or lack of. In short, I am a storyteller." 

"My focus is on creating figurative narrations, within a historical context, about representative groups, or specific individuals caught in dilemmas created by circumstances beyond their control. The characters in my narratives are portrayed in the throes of a defining moment.

I explore documented events in my family and historical episodes. My goal is to continue investigating the uncomfortable realities of the past and, in some cases, to spotlight how they still affect the present. The paradoxes that I explore reveal the travesties of inhumanity and the lack of much-needed altruism.

I depict these situations within a psychological reality or dream-like state, rather than detailed or photographic realism. 

The response to my work has ranged from revulsion, tears, anger, and the viewer’s overwhelming need to thank me for my exposing a forgotten historical reality or the lesson of the subject’s horrible and unbearable experiences.

I hold a B.F.A. from Southeastern Massachusetts University in Painting and an M.F.A. from the University of Miami in Painting. My background includes owning and operating two advertising agencies, teaching Art and Art History at Bristol Community College, and teaching marketing at the Charlton College of Business at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

My studio is located at my home in Fairhaven, and, for a time, I also maintained one in Figueira da Foz, Portugal where I once lived."

M. Saffell Gardner holds BFA and MFA degrees in fine art from Wayne State University. A multidisciplinary artist, art historian, curator, lecturer and educator, he teaches at private colleges and community colleges. In fall of 2023 Saffell installed a monumental sculpture “Gateway to Black Eden” at Michigan Legacy Art Park, which was commissioned by their collection committee. “Detroit rePatched” commissioned Gardner for a large memorial blanket sculpture. “Sankofa”, one of Saffell’s larger sculptures was shown at the Krasl Biennial at the Box Factory in St. Joseph, MI 2022-23. Saffell’s sculptures have been juried into the 2021 and 2023 Regional Biennial at the Marshall M. Fredricks sculpture museum and his sculptures “Sankofa’ ‘ was in the 2020-2021 Chelsea Sculpture Walk. 2015 Saffell was awarded a Kresge Fellowship. Mr. Gardner also participated in Artprize for 2014. Mr. Gardner was invited to Participate in “The Venice Biennale 2013”. In 2012, Saffell co-curated “Vision in a Cornfield” for the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. In 2000, Mr. Gardner was selected as the Chivas Regal Artist in Residence at the Charles H. Wright Museum. A commissioned painting “Door of No Return ” is in the museum’s permanent collection because of the residency. Commissions include a painted receptacle for Detroit’s “Pretty City” project as well as major commissions for the COBO Center (now Huntington Place) and the Detroit Public Schools. Mr. Gardner’s work is in the permanent collection of The Henry Ford Hospital, Blue Cross Blue Shield, DMC, Total Healthcare, The Federal Reserve, Chicago, Renaissance High School and Southeastern High School and Detroit School of the Arts. He has exhibited in Brazil and Ghana.

"Much of my work is concerned with social inequality along both national and global fronts. My imagery explores historical moments. Moments that celebrate the beauty of a people or the necessary light upon violence against humanity, in its many forms, with special attention to the plight of women and children. 

Through research, I engage with the past and use my art to give a public and present voice to those whose voices have been silenced or just plainly, ignored. I create collage, paintings, and installations that often interweave text. Although I am well known for my collage-based work, I implement a wide variety of media to manifest my work. 

I tell stories using appropriated materials from popular magazines, vintage maps, and resourced materials, offering them back to the viewer with a sense of history and admiration of the beautiful. My mixed media artworks are sometimes applause and sometimes ranting about the effects of politics and history. By squaring off the division between the realm of memory and the realm of experience, I absorb the tradition of remembrance art into daily practice. This personal storytelling is important as an act of meditation and mediation.

My work is rarely conceived as a single piece but is instead imagined as an entire body of work around a central theme, such as the 32 pieces in Hooded Truths (2014), which also includes installation and performance.  In addition, I make use of text and performance in my work to strengthen the voice.  My practice is socially engaged, personally, in my interaction and collaboration with other artists, and politically, in my activism through my work."

Being able to create is an essential part of my life. It is an extension of my innermost thoughts and imagination. My primary focus of art is realism--using oils and acrylics. Occasionally, there is a need for me to temporarily switch mediums to break up the monotony. So with this, I started designing and building three dimensional pieces. Working mixed mediums, I use various wood, metal and paint, thus allowing me to achieve the visual effects I am looking for. Many of my pieces have been derived from my attraction to Art Deco and Ethnic designs. I am not satisfied until each piece, regardless of the medium or size, has reached the highest possible level of aesthetic quality and craftsmanship I can give it.

Robert Ketchens is a social realist painter who creates layered artworks that are rich in color and symbolism. The subjects of his works are predominantly influenced by and reflect the social distinctions and complexities of the African diaspora. Ketchens’ work is rooted in traditional theory made fresh with modern applications and sensibility.  He is drawn to contemporary and historical themes that are part of a larger story of dignity and humanity in black people. In his paintings, you will find visual quotes from Masters such as Diego Velasquez, Francisco Goya, Romare Bearden, and Charles White.

Robert Ketchens was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1952. Serving as a Medical Illustrator with the US Air Force, he was given the opportunity to study abroad in Wiesbaden, Germany, where he learned traditional techniques in painting. By using old world techniques as a solid foundation and mixing in modern esthetics, he has developed a very unique and distinct style. He has had solo exhibitions nationwide, including those at the Rosemary Berkel and Harry L. Crisp Museum, Fontbonne University Museum, the Margaret Harwell Museum, and the Dusable Museum in Chicago. His selected group exhibitions include the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis, and the Museum Center of Records and Documents for Senegal in Senegal, West Africa, amongst others.

His work is held in numerous public and private collections, most notably the permanent collection of the Illinois State Museum, and the Missouri History Museum. In 2016 Robert Ketchens received a Purchase Award with the 22nd African American Art Exhibition in Louisville, Kentucky. 

In 2017, Ketchens received a commission from the Missouri History Museum to complete four portraits of St. Louis’ African American civil rights leaders and activists, for their exhibition titled “#1 in Civil Rights: The African American Freedom Struggle in St. Louis.” These paintings remain in their permanent collection. Robert Ketchens currently lives and works in O’Fallon, Illinois.

BUCK! Describes his work as “an ongoing conversation with myself in regards to my many artistic influences gathered from daily life and also from seeking information. The viewer gets bits of everything in my work including influences from impressionists, cartoonists, painters, graphic artists and more. My art is often interrupted by my logical thoughts which are then reinterpreted back into a visual representation of its chaos.” A collage of words and impactful imagery, his work is in a category of its own.

With over 25 years of professional experience, Buck delves deep into his own vices in an ongoing journey of spiritual discovery. It is in the contradiction of the human experience that Buck finds beauty. Buck has successfully managed and designed campaigns for national brands including, Heineken, Adidas, Scion, Boost Mobile, Sprint and Timberland. A believer in change, Buck’s art is a reflection and an opportunity for audiences to consider choice. An accomplished designer, his work was a part of the UNCF evening of stars for which the team won a NAACP image award. His work was featured in the 2019 Netflix movie Love Dot Com: The Social Experiment.

Carole Morisseau is an American artist whose works emphasizes traditional painting and drawing techniques. Carole is the recipient of a Fulbright Hayes

Fellowship Group Project Abroad 2018 to Brazil, studying Afro-Brazilian art and culture. Her 3D interactive installation, "Healing Wall" was created as a development of that journey.

Carole, awarded an artist residency in 2019 to the Cuttyhunk Island Artist Residency in Massachusetts, was born in Detroit, Michigan and received her BS degree in Art Education from
Central State University. She retired from teaching Art in 2015 and continues her professional art practice in painting, drawing and sculpture. In addition to being a prize-winning artist, Ms. Morisseau's work has also been selected for the cover of The Norton Anthropology of African American Literature 4th. Edition, Volume 2, an esteemed publication that is used in Universities and colleges around the world and in several different languages. Carole was honored with her work being published in the most recent volume of "Essay'd", a book featuring 30 writers writing about 30 visual artists. Morisseau is also showcased in an online video produced by the historical arts organization, the Scarab Club- Detroit.

Ms. Morisseau's current work uses Brazilian soil as an impactful component that bridges cultures, generations and continents. Her work was also selected to hang in the Kresge Arts in Detroit main offices and can be found in collections in the U.S., Canada, Haiti and Brazil. 

She has published one book of her art work and is currently working on a second book.

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“I seek to stand face-to-face with myself, know who I am and speak to the universe”.
 

Frank Schroeder is an experienced French painter whose works have featured in prominent exhibitions in the US, UK and Spain. Partly revisiting classic religious and philosophical themes with a contemporary outlook, and partly exploring each viewer to embark on a journey via his works: either to their fears, their reality, or simply back to themselves.
 

Frank's work is fast, responsive, and instinctive, and is produced on canvas and cardboard. Given his ‘no time to lose’ mindset he favors acrylic because of its rapid drying time often overlaying this with oil pastels and sometimes spray paint.
 

His more recent work tells intricately woven stories of biblical themes and personal experience blended with psychological and emotional confessions. His modernistic use of line combined with energetic colors and evocative Neo-expressionist style is layered with a uniquely patterned use of numbers and type that capture the gaze and encourage new experiences each time the work is engaged.
 

His work has often been compared to that of Picasso and Basquiat by a number of art critics. The tension in his pieces reveal a yearning for indulgence and absolution.
 

Schroeder comments, “For my part, a painting should not be a simple illustration on canvas. Each painting must tell its viewer a story. I want my viewers to experience the 'Alice in Wonderland Syndrome.' I want them to go through the proverbial mirror in order to get to the other side of my painting and live in my work as part of the story.”

After teaching art for more than 30 years, Patricia Simpson of Saginaw decided to go back to school and perfect her work with clay.

She wanted to create something that expressed her ancestral heritage. ‘Being an African-American woman, I had no information about my culture so I had to do research,’ she says.

Her collection includes vessels and sculptures created in the last year or two – most of which have not been on display before.

While researching African-American culture and art, she noticed similarities with Australia aboriginal color palettes and figure styles. She noticed the similarities between pieces in her basement mini gallery and aboriginal paintings. 

"It was a happy accident". 

Each piece is handmade and one of a kind. Each vessel can take up to a month to create. It requires time to dry and harden because if the structure is not strong enough, the clay can crack.

Simpson received a master’s degree from Wayne State University, double majoring in art education and home economics. She taught in Detroit for 22 years and spent several years teaching ceramics before retiring in 2010. Then she took ceramic classes at the College of Creative Studies, and is taking a pottery throwing class at Oakland Community College.

"I started taking classes and refining my art, which has really helped. I’m learning new things and techniques," she says, noting she’s perfected glazing techniques, abstract patterns and designs. 

Simpson has a kiln at home, but said she enjoys feedback and critique from other classmates and teachers. She plans to continue taking classes. 

"It’s just the journey and educating yourself", she says.

Dawn L. Stringer is a self-taught Abstract Expressionist. Her work is influenced by Gerhard Richter and Norman Lewis and heavily inspired by music, pop culture, and obscurity.  Dawn describes her work as, “beautifully organized chaos”. She encourages the viewer to get lost within her work and to create their own interpretation based upon what they see and most importantly what they feel.

Dawn’s award- winning piece “Love Supreme” was selected as part of the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series Finals in 2017.  Dawn has exhibited and shown throughout the country including: The Detroit Historical Museum, Rush Arts Philadelphia, , Art Expo NY and Scope Miami. Her work has been acquired for private and public collections. 

Dawn resides in the Metro Detroit Area and is a member of the Atlanta based artist collective, The Obsidian Collektive, a member of the National Conference of Artists.  

Art is pain, art is peace…
I am most creative when I am stressed, frightened,
hurting. Yet, I am most at peace when I am
creating.
When Covid shut the world down, I was part of that
isolation.
On a whim, I purchased a kiln and my first clump of
clay and taught myself ceramics.

I create, among other things, nests. Wasp nests. Bees’ nests. Insect nests. Nests.
Using single strands of extruded clay and porcelain, I singularly create my interpretation of
these beautiful, frightening, fragile, resilient structures—the organisms that nest on those
nests, and all nature throws at them.

My personal artwork has always been inspired by the distinctive and spiritual nature of an African American experience. I hope to stir the viewer’s spirit and their curiosity with my work by capturing this human experience in moments of reflection, celebration, healing and despair. The ideas emerge from observed encounters, which are then developed into more interpretive, sometimes-mysterious visual imagery on paper. I would like to think the complexity of the work is not in the technique, but in the ideas behind them.

Shirley Woodson-Reid is an artist, curator and collector. She received her BFA and MA from Wayne State University and graduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

“Paintings are my diaries; drawings are my prose; collage is my poetry; assemblages are my dialogue,” notes artist, educator, arts advocate, and 2021 Kresge Eminent Artist, Shirley Woodson Reid. Across six decades and parallel to her accomplishments as an artist, Woodson has also been an exceptionally dedicated and influential educator, arts advocate, and institution builder.

Woodson has lived a life dedicated to uplifting the beauty of Black art. Fine arts paintings, collage, portraits, and figurative paintings depict her life, the environment, and African American history.

She is a MacDowell Colony and ConFaba Fellow, and held art residencies at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, as well as the Brandywine Printmaking Workshop and Archives in Philadelphia.

Her writings have appeared in the International Review of African American Art, MidMarch Arts Press, along with the publications of Morgan State University, Marygrove College, NCA Michigan and others. Woodson also served as an illustrator for Broadside Press. Woodson’s work iin the public collections include: Detroit Institute of Artists, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Museum of the National Center of Afro American Art, Boston; Mott - Warsh Collection of Contemporary Art, Flint, MI; Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia; African American Library Northwestern University, Evanston; Williams Museum, Scripps College, CA ; Florida A and M University; Fayetteville State University, NC; Wayne State University; Detroit Receiving Hospital, and Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit. Currently her projects include preparation for an exhibition of abstract drawings.