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RESEARCH
ALLAH TANTOU (GOD’S WILL)
“I've never felt so humble, insignificant and yet it is the deepest reason of my happiness: I believe it's the grace of God." Words written by Marof Achkar in a diary smuggled out of Camp Boiro, the infamous concentration camp in central Conakry. Achkar had been a diplomat, UN ambassador, and director of the Ballets Africains. In 1968, at the height of his career representing Sékou Touré's government on the world stage, he was suddenly recalled to Guinea, charged with treason, and sent to the camp, where he remained imprisoned until his execution.
GOD GAVE HER A MERCEDES BENZ
“How much does Democracy cost?" asks the woman holding up her folded wad of cash, her determined gaze fixed on Maman, the unwavering figure behind the counter. In the bustling fabric store in downtown Lomé, the air is thick with anticipation as each woman raises her francs, attempting to bargain and lower the price. But Maman remains resolute, refusing to compromise on the value of her merchandise.
HERE, TIME PAUSES: STEPHEN PRICE
To encounter a Price painting is to meet his now-signature solemn figures, at once statuesque and alive, like sculptural forms pausing to take a deep inhale. Their presence is serene, sometimes wistful, and always at ease. Price’s figures always seem to turn inward, outward, or toward something, or someone, beyond the viewer’s reach.
PENTAGAMES: AGBOBLY SS26 COLLECTION
A pentagame is a simple game. Child’s play, one might call it. Five interlocking paths, a colorful field of play, and seemingly simple rules. Collaborated with Togolese-Ghanaian designer Jacques Agbobbly on their New York Fashion Week runway debut collection: PENTAGAMES. Powered by Nike.
ONE AT A TIME: VIOLA NIMUHAMYA
Through her interventions, Nimuhamya preserves these embedded histories while generating radical formal and spatial possibilities. The resulting works operate across multiple registers, speaking to Norway where the materials are sourced, to Uganda where the techniques were learned, and most importantly, to the artist herself and her evolving negotiation of these entangled geographies.
FAMILIAR FORMS: LABOR, MATERIAL, AND SPACE
Folding, threading, looping. Viola Nimuhamya’s sculptural practice begins with these gestures. She first learned basket-weaving as a child, from the women in her community in Uganda, and the intelligence of these techniques remains central to her evolving art practice today. In one of our early conversations, Nimuhamya explains that her fascination lies in taking these inherited techniques and opening them outward, allowing them to be “broken, reconfigured, and multiplied.”
For the past two years, I have been pursuing an independent research project on the history and legacy of indigo-dyeing in my home country of Guinea (Conakry). My research reflects on what an analytical and conceptual centering of indigo fabric can reveal about my country’s past and the way it stains and colors the present.
I am a recipient of the Henry Richardson Labouisse 1926 Prize which has allowed me to return to Guinea and continue my research for another year. My research has been supported by the Alex Adam ‘07 Award from the Lewis Center for the Arts and the Lawrence Stone and Shelby Cullom Davis Thesis Prize from the Davis Center for Historical Studies.
An early version of BLUEPRINTS was previewed at the 19th Triennial Symposium of African Art in Chicago, IL in August 2024.
GIVING FORM TO THE WHOLE WORLD: SAMUEL NNOROM
Nnorom’s sculptural forms act as physical manifestations of how the global textile industry, and modernity more broadly, stretch across borders, weaving people together while also tying communities down. In this way, Nnorom’s works speak to the lingering effects of globalization, over-consumption, and displacement, offering an urgent and poetic representation of the modern world.
NINFO, TE QUIERO: JUAN ARANGO PALACIOS
Palacios turns inward, re-examining his relationship with his homeland and exploring how love, longing, and desire endure amidst complexity and contradiction. These pieces serve as subtle self-portraits from a hypothetical universe. One to which Palacios reaches out in mourning, curiosity, and love for his country, and in that very act, conjures a new realm that is distinctly his own.
EXCEED YOUR VISION & POETIC RECORD
A group exhibition curated by James Welling, presented as part of Poetic Record: Photography in a Transformed World, a two-day symposium that gathered photo-based artists, writers, curators, historians, and students to explore the poetics of photography, its instability, and its latent potential. Symposium organized by Deana Lawson, in collaboration with Jeff Whetstone. Produced by Mary K. O’Connor with Joe Arnold.
, TRIENNIAL SYMPOSIUM ON AFRICAN ART
My first time presenting research at an academic conference. An early version of BLUEPRINTS was previewed at ACASA, the 19th Triennial Symposium of African Art in Chicago, IL in August 2024.
CYPHER: IMAG[IN]E PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION
What does it mean to channel one's individual voice while contributing to a collective roar of resistance? To think and work within a tradition of photographers who refuse to take our representation for granted? For the past two months, artists Angel Rivera, Yomeris Alvarez Basilio, Karmanie Minnis, Shiah Versey, Sydney Del Cid, Pedro Hernandez, Kmari Thompson, Aishah Nimaga, Eliana Gonzalez, and Ariana Lorenzo have been wrestling with these questions as the inaugural cohort of IMAG(IN)E.
IMAG[IN]E: THE BLACK PHOTOGRAPHIC TRADITION
Designed to empower high schoolers in the Bronx to use film photography not only as a means of self-expression but also as a way to critically engage with and represent their communities. Over six weeks (July 27 – August 31), we explored the stakes and potential of film photography, by providing each student with their own 35mm film camera, hands-on training in photography, as well as teaching the historical context of the black photographic tradition.
WE KEEP US SAFE: THE BLACK ARTS COLLECTIVE
A group exhibition curated by Erin Macanze. A reflection on the legacy of black radical expression and a tribute to the history of Palestinian, Black, and international liberation struggle movements. Calling attention to the interconnected nature of these liberation movements, and learn from their guiding principles, from which this show draws its name.
THE IMAGES CARAIBES FILM FESTIVAL
Writing in 1992, after having attended the first two editions of the biennial festival, Africanist scholar Mbye Cham describes how Images Caraïbes marked a shift in the field of Caribbean cinema as “the first fully fledged region-wide and diaspora-wide festival of Caribbean films.”
LIVITY: THE BLACK ARTS COLLECTIVE
A group exhibition curated by Azariah Jones. Titled after the Rastafarian ideology of the same name, LIVITY presents 13 Black artists’ reimaginings of these often dormant sites of memory as active portals that the deceased move through, and exist within — as able, fully feeling, and everlasting entities.
SHOOTING _______ SHADOWS: SANKOFA FASHION SHOW
My second edition of the Sankofa Fashion Show at Princeton University, this time serving as Director.
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[2025]
ALLAH TANTOU (GOD’S WILL)
“I've never felt so humble, insignificant and yet it is the deepest reason of my happiness: I believe it's the grace of God." Words written by Marof Achkar in a diary smuggled out of Camp Boiro, the infamous concentration camp in central Conakry. Achkar had been a diplomat, UN ambassador, and director of the Ballets Africains. In 1968, at the height of his career representing Sékou Touré's government on the world stage, he was suddenly recalled to Guinea, charged with treason, and sent to the camp, where he remained imprisoned until his execution.
GOD GAVE HER A MERCEDES BENZ
“How much does Democracy cost?" asks the woman holding up her folded wad of cash, her determined gaze fixed on Maman, the unwavering figure behind the counter. In the bustling fabric store in downtown Lomé, the air is thick with anticipation as each woman raises her francs, attempting to bargain and lower the price. But Maman remains resolute, refusing to compromise on the value of her merchandise.
HERE, TIME PAUSES: STEPHEN PRICE
To encounter a Price painting is to meet his now-signature solemn figures, at once statuesque and alive, like sculptural forms pausing to take a deep inhale. Their presence is serene, sometimes wistful, and always at ease. Price’s figures always seem to turn inward, outward, or toward something, or someone, beyond the viewer’s reach.
PENTAGAMES: AGBOBLY SS26 COLLECTION
A pentagame is a simple game. Child’s play, one might call it. Five interlocking paths, a colorful field of play, and seemingly simple rules. Collaborated with Togolese-Ghanaian designer Jacques Agbobbly on their New York Fashion Week runway debut collection: PENTAGAMES. Powered by Nike.
ONE AT A TIME: VIOLA NIMUHAMYA
Through her interventions, Nimuhamya preserves these embedded histories while generating radical formal and spatial possibilities. The resulting works operate across multiple registers, speaking to Norway where the materials are sourced, to Uganda where the techniques were learned, and most importantly, to the artist herself and her evolving negotiation of these entangled geographies.
FAMILIAR FORMS: LABOR, MATERIAL, AND SPACE
Folding, threading, looping. Viola Nimuhamya’s sculptural practice begins with these gestures. She first learned basket-weaving as a child, from the women in her community in Uganda, and the intelligence of these techniques remains central to her evolving art practice today. In one of our early conversations, Nimuhamya explains that her fascination lies in taking these inherited techniques and opening them outward, allowing them to be “broken, reconfigured, and multiplied.”
For the past two years, I have been pursuing an independent research project on the history and legacy of indigo-dyeing in my home country of Guinea (Conakry). My research reflects on what an analytical and conceptual centering of indigo fabric can reveal about my country’s past and the way it stains and colors the present.
I am a recipient of the Henry Richardson Labouisse 1926 Prize which has allowed me to return to Guinea and continue my research for another year. My research has been supported by the Alex Adam ‘07 Award from the Lewis Center for the Arts and the Lawrence Stone and Shelby Cullom Davis Thesis Prize from the Davis Center for Historical Studies.
An early version of BLUEPRINTS was previewed at the 19th Triennial Symposium of African Art in Chicago, IL in August 2024.
GIVING FORM TO THE WHOLE WORLD: SAMUEL NNOROM
Nnorom’s sculptural forms act as physical manifestations of how the global textile industry, and modernity more broadly, stretch across borders, weaving people together while also tying communities down. In this way, Nnorom’s works speak to the lingering effects of globalization, over-consumption, and displacement, offering an urgent and poetic representation of the modern world.
NINFO, TE QUIERO: JUAN ARANGO PALACIOS
Palacios turns inward, re-examining his relationship with his homeland and exploring how love, longing, and desire endure amidst complexity and contradiction. These pieces serve as subtle self-portraits from a hypothetical universe. One to which Palacios reaches out in mourning, curiosity, and love for his country, and in that very act, conjures a new realm that is distinctly his own.
EXCEED YOUR VISION & POETIC RECORD
A group exhibition curated by James Welling, presented as part of Poetic Record: Photography in a Transformed World, a two-day symposium that gathered photo-based artists, writers, curators, historians, and students to explore the poetics of photography, its instability, and its latent potential. Symposium organized by Deana Lawson, in collaboration with Jeff Whetstone. Produced by Mary K. O’Connor with Joe Arnold.
, TRIENNIAL SYMPOSIUM ON AFRICAN ART
My first time presenting research at an academic conference. An early version of BLUEPRINTS was previewed at ACASA, the 19th Triennial Symposium of African Art in Chicago, IL in August 2024.
CYPHER: IMAG[IN]E PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION
What does it mean to channel one's individual voice while contributing to a collective roar of resistance? To think and work within a tradition of photographers who refuse to take our representation for granted? For the past two months, artists Angel Rivera, Yomeris Alvarez Basilio, Karmanie Minnis, Shiah Versey, Sydney Del Cid, Pedro Hernandez, Kmari Thompson, Aishah Nimaga, Eliana Gonzalez, and Ariana Lorenzo have been wrestling with these questions as the inaugural cohort of IMAG(IN)E.
IMAG[IN]E: THE BLACK PHOTOGRAPHIC TRADITION
Designed to empower high schoolers in the Bronx to use film photography not only as a means of self-expression but also as a way to critically engage with and represent their communities. Over six weeks (July 27 – August 31), we explored the stakes and potential of film photography, by providing each student with their own 35mm film camera, hands-on training in photography, as well as teaching the historical context of the black photographic tradition.
WE KEEP US SAFE: THE BLACK ARTS COLLECTIVE
A group exhibition curated by Erin Macanze. A reflection on the legacy of black radical expression and a tribute to the history of Palestinian, Black, and international liberation struggle movements. Calling attention to the interconnected nature of these liberation movements, and learn from their guiding principles, from which this show draws its name.
[2023]
THE IMAGES CARAIBES FILM FESTIVAL
Writing in 1992, after having attended the first two editions of the biennial festival, Africanist scholar Mbye Cham describes how Images Caraïbes marked a shift in the field of Caribbean cinema as “the first fully fledged region-wide and diaspora-wide festival of Caribbean films.”
LIVITY: THE BLACK ARTS COLLECTIVE
A group exhibition curated by Azariah Jones. Titled after the Rastafarian ideology of the same name, LIVITY presents 13 Black artists’ reimaginings of these often dormant sites of memory as active portals that the deceased move through, and exist within — as able, fully feeling, and everlasting entities.
SHOOTING _______ SHADOWS: SANKOFA FASHION SHOW
My second edition of the Sankofa Fashion Show at Princeton University, this time serving as Director.
Return to homepage