Kenturah Davis (born 1980) [1] is an American contemporary multidisciplinary artist and designer. She works in the mediums of sculpture, drafting, printmaking, painting, and performance art. Davis has lived between the cities of Los Angeles, New Haven in the United States, and Accra, Ghana. [2] [3] [4]
Davis earned her BA degree from Occidental College in 2002; [5] and a MFA degree from Yale University School of Art. [6] [7]
Davis' work explores the relationship between identity, language, and figurative mark-making. Davis works in a range of media from drawing to painting to sculpture to performance. [8] Her work is in the collection of the Walker Art Center. [1]
In 2020, Davis collaborated with the fashion label: Osei Duro. [9] Davis was commissioned by Los Angeles Metro to create large-scale work that will be permanently installed in a site-specific location on the new K Line (Crenshaw/LAX) rail line. [6] [10]
In 2021, the Pérez Art Museum Miami acquired their work Black As the Most Exquisite Color (2019) as part of this institution's new acquisitions initiative. [11] Davis's work was welcomed into PAMM's collection alongside artworks from Bisa Butler, Tania Bruguera, and Coco Fusco, among others. [12]
In 2022, Ava DuVernay's portrait, by Davis, was revealed by the National Portrait Gallery. [13] [14] [15]
Catherine Sue Opie is an American fine art photographer and educator. She lives and works in Los Angeles, as a professor of photography at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Kehinde Wiley is an American portrait painter based in New York City. He is known for his naturalistic paintings of black people that reference the work of Old Master paintings. In 2017, Wiley was commissioned to paint former President Barack Obama's portrait for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. The Columbus Museum of Art hosted an exhibition of his work in 2007 and describes his paintings as "heroic portraits which address the image and status of young African-American men in contemporary culture."
Derek Fordjour is an American interdisciplinary artist and educator of Ghanaian heritage who works in collage, video/film, sculpture, and painting. Fordjour lives and works in New York City.
Moses Ernest Tolliver was an American artist. He was known as "Mose T", after the signature on his paintings, signed with a backwards "s."
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye is a British painter and writer, of Ghanaian heritage. She is best known for her portraits of imaginary subjects, or ones derived from found objects, which are painted in muted colours. Her work has contributed to the renaissance in painting the Black figure. Her paintings often are presented in solo exhibitions.
Ava Marie DuVernay is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer. She is a recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards, two NAACP Image Award, a BAFTA Film Award, and a BAFTA TV Award, as well as a nominee for an Academy Award and Golden Globe. In 2011, she founded her independent distribution company ARRAY.
Hayv Kahraman is an Iraqi-American-Swedish artist of Kurdish descent, who was born in Baghdad and fled to Sweden with family during the Gulf War, studied in Florence, and is currently based in Los Angeles. She is primarily a painter.
Youssef Nabil was born on the 6th of November 1972. He is an Egyptian artist and photographer. Youssef Nabil began his photography career in 1992.
Emayatzy Corinealdi is an American actress. She starred in the Ava DuVernay 2012 drama film Middle of Nowhere for which she won Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Performer and received Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead nomination. Corinealdi later starred in films Miles Ahead (2016), and The Invitation (2015). On television, she played the role of Belle in the 2016 remake of Roots. She also starred in Hand of God (2014–2017), Ballers (2017–2019), and The Red Line (2019). In 2022, Corinealdi began starring in the Hulu legal drama series, Reasonable Doubt.
Jeffrey Deitch is an American art dealer and curator. He is best known for his gallery Deitch Projects (1996–2010) and curating groundbreaking exhibitions such as Lives (1975) and Post Human (1992), the latter of which has been credited with introducing the concept of "posthumanism" to popular culture. In 2010, ArtReview named him as the twelfth most influential person in the international art world.
Selma is a 2014 historical drama film directed by Ava DuVernay and written by Paul Webb. It is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches which were initiated and directed by James Bevel and led by Martin Luther King Jr., Hosea Williams, and John Lewis. The film stars actors David Oyelowo as King, Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson, Tim Roth as George Wallace, Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, and Common as Bevel.
A Wrinkle in Time is a 2018 American science fantasy adventure film directed by Ava DuVernay and written by Jennifer Lee and Jeff Stockwell, based on Madeleine L'Engle's 1962 novel of the same name. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Whitaker Entertainment, the story follows a young girl who, with the help of three astral travelers, sets off on a quest to find her missing father. The film stars Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Levi Miller, Storm Reid, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Peña, Zach Galifianakis, and Chris Pine.
Henry Taylor is an American artist and painter who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He is best known for his acrylic paintings, mixed media sculptures, and installations.
Victoria Gitman is a mid-career Argentine painter currently living in Hallandale Beach, Florida. Her work, though highly figurative, has been linked to minimalist abstract traditions of the 1960s. Working on a small scale, Gitman has worked in several series, always focusing on themes of femininity, beauty, the tradition of craftsmanship, and the history of art, dating back to the fifteenth century. Her subjects have included quotations of portraits by well known artists, self-portraits, jewelry, purses, and, most recently, luxurious swaths of colored fur.
Arthur Jafa is an American video artist and cinematographer.
When They See Us is a 2019 American crime drama television miniseries created, co-written, and directed by Ava DuVernay for Netflix, that premiered in four parts on May 31, 2019. It is based on events of the 1989 Central Park jogger case and explores the lives and families of the five Black and Latino male suspects who were falsely accused then prosecuted on charges related to the rape and assault of a white woman in Central Park, New York City. The series features an ensemble cast, including Jharrel Jerome, Asante Blackk, Caleel Harris, Jovan Adepo, Michael K. Williams, Logan Marshall-Green, Joshua Jackson, Blair Underwood, Vera Farmiga, John Leguizamo, Felicity Huffman, Niecy Nash, Aunjanue Ellis, Marsha Stephanie Blake, and Kylie Bunbury.
Bisa Butler is an American fiber artist who has created a new genre of quilting that has transformed the medium. Although quilting has long been considered a craft, her interdisciplinary methods—which create quilts that look like paintings—have catapulted quilting into the field of fine art. She is known for her vibrant, quilted portraits celebrating Black life, portraying both everyday people and notable historical figures. Her works now count among the permanent collections at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Art Institute of Chicago, Pérez Art Museum Miami and about a dozen other art museums nationwide. She has also exhibited at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, the Epcot Center, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and many other venues. In 2020, she was commissioned to quilt cover images for Time magazine, including the "Person of the Year" issue and its "100 Women of the Year" issue. With a multi-year wait list for private commissions, one of Butler's quilts sold at auction in 2021 for $75,000 USD.
Noah Davis, was an American painter, installation artist, and founder of the Underground Museum in Los Angeles. When talking about his work, Davis has said, "if I’m making any statement, it’s to just show black people in normal scenarios, where drugs and guns are nothing to do with it," and describes his work as "instances where black aesthetics and modernist aesthetics collide." Davis died at his home in Ojai, California, on August 29, 2015, of a rare form of soft tissue cancer.
Cherish the Day is an American romantic drama anthology television series created and produced by Ava DuVernay. The series chronicles the relationship of one couple, with each episode spanning a single day marking a significant moment. The first season took place over the course of five years. The second one expanded over a few months.
Anna Park is a Korean-American visual artist working primarily on large-scale charcoal drawings. She was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, and now is now based in Brooklyn, New York.