Ludovic Nkoth is a New York-based artist. His work is heavily informed by life events which led him to move from his native home of Cameroon, West Africa, to the United States when he was thirteen. Leaving his birth-family and siblings, he found solace and comfort in the creative process while being raised primarily as “a stranger in a strange land”. It wasn’t until he migrated to the United States that he began to reconsider his own culture as a catalyst to locate his identity. Nkoth’s work presents a complex but highly personal investigation of Africa, his family history, and the cultures, traditions, and ideas of Africa and its diaspora pre-and post-colonialism. His paintings are approached with a type of naive brusqueness, an immediacy and boldness of color that suggests both a passion and sense of discovery. African symbols such as masks, patterns, and other symbols of identity and culture remain consistent throughout his practice.  “I want my art to be political. Being an artist is a political stand in itself.” Nkoth is an MFA candidate at Hunter College, and received a BFA from the University of South Carolina.

Raelis Vasquez was born in The Dominican Republic and moved to New Jersey with his family in 2002. His family worked tirelessly in order to move into a large house in a better neighborhood.  Vasquez talks about his father working hard to support his fmaily and that he instilled that same work ethic into Vasquez as well. Vasquez spends most of his time diligently working on this paintings and drawings in his home studio. Vasquez’s paintings are large-scale images that capture the historical and political narratives of his subjects while highlighhting their emotional and personal narratives as well.  The work ranges from traditional portraiture to contemporary genre scenes that represent people of color with multiple identities such as black, immigrant, mulatto, Afro-Latinx, and Latinx, all pressing against traditional concepts of what it means to be American.

Amani Lewis' works aim to shift the dominant narrative of Baltimore to hold the people and the complexity of their stories at the forefront to deepen the subject’s perspective of themselves, their power and their relationship to the city. By examining how Baltimore is depicted in the news, press, and across social media, they have deepened their understanding of how that city is perceived through an exterior lens. Lewis begins with found and original photography of quotidian life in Baltimore, and then layers on expressive contour lines, a process that shifts the viewer’s focus away from the reality of the lives and circumstances of the subjects. In creating a visual cacophony, Lewis compels the viewer to look closer, to hone in on distinct pockets of the canvas, and in the process, uncover aspects of the narrative that are seemingly—and perhaps willingly—overlooked.