Erika Massaquoi

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Erika Massaquoi
Erika Massaquoi 1.jpg
Erika Massaquoi
CitizenshipAmerican
Education University of Chicago
Alma mater New York University
Occupation(s)Fashion designer, museum curator, educator
Employer(s) Fashion Institute of Technology
Seattle Art Museum
Website erikadalyamassaquoi.com

Erika Dalya Massaquoi is an American fashion designer, curator, and educator. [1] [2] Massaquoi served as Assistant Dean of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and as a consultant curator at the Seattle Art Museum. She has written and lectured on contemporary art, black visual culture, and fashion. She also founded The OULA Company, which manufactures garments in the United States using African textiles. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Massaquoi grew up in Miami, Florida. She holds a BA and MA from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from New York University. [4] [5] She also has a certificate in Culture, Media & History from New York University. [6] In 1993, during her senior year at the University of Chicago, she was listed in Glamour magazine’s Top 10 College Women in America list. [7]

Career

Massaquoi began her career at the Museum of the Moving Image and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. [8] She later held teaching appointments at The New School and New York University, and served as Assistant Dean of the School of Art and Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). [9] She also worked as a commentator on NPR’s All Things Considered and served as an on-air correspondent for the Oxygen network from 2000 to 2004. [8]

In 2001, Massaquoi co-organized and curated Race in Digital Space at the MIT List Visual Arts Center. [10] The exhibition later traveled to the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. Participating artists included Sanford Biggers, Beth Coleman, Prema Murthy, Mendi & Keith Obadike, Paul D. Miller, Paul Pfeiffer, and Keith Piper. The project is archived at the Getty Research Institute. [11]

In 2015, she served as Consultant Curator at the Seattle Art Museum, where she co-curated Disguise: Masks & Global African Art. [12] The exhibition later traveled to the Brooklyn Museum and the Fowler Museum at UCLA, and was reviewed in The New York Times , The Guardian , and The New Yorker . [13] [14] [15] Massaquoi co-authored the exhibition catalogue published by Yale University Press in 2015. [12] The exhibition included various aspects of African traditions such as masquerades. Featured artists included Brendan Fernandes, Nandipha Mntambo, Emeka Ogboh, Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Sondra Perry, Zina Saro-Wiwa, Jacolby Satterwhite, Sam Vernon, William Villalongo, and Saya Woolfalk. [13] She also co-curated Genius / 21 Century / Seattle at the Frye Art Museum in the same year. [16] [17]

In 2015, Massaquoi launched The OULA Company. Nordstrom began carrying the line in 2021. [18] The company designs and produces caftans, tunics, and dresses that feature global textiles. [19] [20] [21] OULA sources textiles in Africa, Asia (primarily India), and Europe. OULA and Prairie Underground collaborated on a denim project, and OULA has also crafted its silhouettes in Liberty London fabric. [22] [23]

The exhibition AFRICA FORECAST: Fashioning Contemporary Life, which Erika Massaquoi co-curated with Andrea Barnwell Brownlee, opened in 2016 and focused on art that documents African women's history and emotions towards clothing and fashion. Featured artists included Amy Sherald, Fabiola Jean-Louis, Ayana V. Jackson, Zohra Opoku, and Deborah Roberts. [24] [25]

In 2018, Massaquoi curated Taking Tea at the Seattle Art Museum, an installation in the Porcelain Room featuring work by ceramic artist Claire Partington. [26] [27] [28]

Personal life

Massaquoi relocated from New York to Seattle [29] in 2012, and later to Denver in 2021. She and her husband, Joe Massaquoi, married in 2009 and have one daughter. [30]

References

  1. ↑ "Black-Owned Fashion Brands". Town & Country. 2021. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  2. ↑ "Black-Owned Fashion Brands to Know". The Cut. 2021. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  3. ↑ Moore, Booth (28 April 2022). "How The OULA Company Is Turning Ankara Wax Cloth Into a Contemporary Fashion Brand". Women’s Wear Daily. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  4. ↑ "Undergraduate Excellence". Chicago Tribune. 8 September 1993. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  5. ↑ "PhD Graduates: Muhammad, Erika Dalya". NYU Cinema Resources. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  6. ↑ "Erika Dalya Massaquoi". Seattle Arts & Lectures. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  7. ↑ Content, Contributed (September 26, 1993). "Undergraduate excellence: Amy Friedman of Northwestern University…". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 10, 2025.
  8. 1 2 "High Style: Erika Dalya Massaquoi". Seattle Magazine. 30 July 2013. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  9. ↑ "Finding Inspiration with Erika Dalya Massaquoi". Cherry Creek Fashion. 2021. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  10. ↑ "Race in Digital Space". MIT List Visual Arts Center. 2001. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  11. ↑ "Race in Digital Space Archive". Getty Research Institute. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  12. 1 2 "Disguise: Masks & Global African Art". Seattle Art Museum. 2015.
  13. 1 2 Cotter, Holland (14 April 2016). "Review: 'Disguise' at Brooklyn Museum Examines the Globality of Masks". The New York Times. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  14. ↑ "Disguise review – a revelatory show about masks and identity". The Guardian. 3 July 2015. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  15. ↑ "Disguise: Masks and Global African Art". The New Yorker. 2016. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  16. ↑ "Genius / 21 Century / Seattle". Frye Art Museum. 2015. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  17. ↑ "Genius / 21 Century / Seattle". The Stranger. 2015. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  18. ↑ "How This Designer Turned Admiration for Her Mother Into a Brand Sold by Nordstrom". Essence. 2021. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  19. ↑ "Best Flowy Dresses for Women". Harper’s Bazaar. 2022. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  20. ↑ "10 Emerging Creatives Who Inspire Innovation in Design". Oprah Daily. 2021. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  21. ↑ "Meet Erika Dalya Massaquoi of The OULA Company". The Scout Guide Denver. 2022. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  22. ↑ "Gray". Prairie Underground. September 11, 2020. Retrieved September 10, 2025.
  23. ↑ "GRAY No. 28". Issuu. May 31, 2016. Retrieved September 10, 2025.
  24. ↑ "Legacy Series: Spelman's Andrea Barnwell Brownlee". ARTS ATL. April 18, 2018.
  25. ↑ Robinson, Shantay (2016-11-11). "Review: "Africa Forecast" shows how convention inspires Black women's spirit". ARTS ATL. Retrieved 2025-09-11.
  26. ↑ Keimig, Jas (30 January 2019). "Porcelain's Deadly Secrets". The Stranger. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  27. ↑ McMichael, Barbara Lloyd (2018). "Ceramic Artist Offers a Different Take on Teatime". Fresh Cup. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  28. ↑ "Ceramic Artist Breaks Porcelain Room". Cascade PBS. 2018. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  29. ↑ "30 Women Who Run This City". Seattle Met. 2018. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  30. ↑ "Erika Muhammad, Joseph Massaquoi". The New York Times. August 1, 2009. Retrieved September 10, 2025.
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