a question of vibrancy/earthly sight

Natalie Ball (1980, Portland, Oregon, USA) lives and works in Southern Oregon/Northern California. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Indigenous, Race & Ethnic Studies & Art from the University of Oregon, USA (2005). She obtained her Master’s degree with a focus on Indigenous contemporary art at Massey University, Aotearoa, New Zealand in 2010 and in 2018, Natalie earned her M.F.A. degree in Painting & Printmaking at Yale School of Art, USA. Ball’s art practice includes installation art, performance art, mixed-media textile art, sculpture, painting, and printmaking. Her work is rooted in her heritage as an Afro-Indigenous citizen of the Klamath Nation and she uses materials and engages with narratives that point to her ancestors. She seeks to complicate and broaden understandings of Indigenous culture, identity, and representation. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally at venues including: Sadie Coles HQ, London, United Kingdom (2021); Wentrup Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2021); Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, California, USA (2020); Half Gallery, New York, New York, USA (2020); Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia, Canada (2019); Gagosian, New York, New York, USA (2019); Seattle Art Museum, Washington, USA (2019); Almine Rech Gallery, Paris, France (2019) and SculptureCenter, New York, New York, USA (2019). Natalie Ball received the 2020 Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant for Painters & Sculptors and the 2020 Hallie Ford Foundation Fellow from The Ford Family Foundation. Her work is part of several prestigious collections as: The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, USA; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, USA; Rubell Museum. Miami, Florida, USA and KunstMuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland, among others.

Khari Johnson-Ricks (1994, New Jersey, USA) lives and works in New Jersey. He graduated in Fine Arts from Hunter College, New York in 2019 and studied Animation and Illustration at Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey in 2016. Johnson-Ricks is a multimedia artist whose practice extends across media, including painting, performance, murals, zines, and nightlife spaces. He especially creates intricate, exuberant scenes from paper constructions painted in shellac ink and watercolor. Exploring the illusory potential of paper, the works make use of the medium’s graphic flatness to create two forms of depth. In situ, his tableaux appear like portals to dreamlike realms, while blank passages of paper bring the viewer back into the material plane of the work. The themes he explores range from family, to community, from friendship to life in general, taking inspiration also from vernacular movement traditions and martial art practices. The artist’s compositions become testaments to the irrepressible urge of the imagination to metabolize, to reinvent, and to transcend. His work has been included in exhibitions at Night Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2021); Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, New York, New York, USA (2020); Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles, California, USA (2019); Special Special, New York, New York, USA (2018); and the Elizabeth Foundation, New York, New York, USA (2017), among others. He has created public murals for the city of Newark as part of Mayor Ras Baraka’s “Model Neighborhood Initiative” and “Gateways to Newark” Projects. His zines are featured in the library collections of the Thomas J Watson Library at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art Library, New York, and The MOMA Library, New York.

Maria Maea lives and works in Los Angeles, California, USA and her multidisciplinary practice includes working in production, installation and performance. Maria Maea explores shadow and play through a range of meditative, durational, theatrical and actionist modes and while using film, sculpture and movement she deepens her connection to source. She investigates the ways we engage and view ourselves within the realities constructed for us and by us. As a Samoan-Mexican American, Maea straddles different layers of identity. Her work operates as an illumination on the brown body’s (dys)function as capitalist commodity, as a resistance to somatic fixity, an examination of the multiplicities of consciousness, and survival as immigrants and first-generation Americans. ⁣Maea’s work was presented in solo shows, group exhibitions and performances in galleries and institutions as: LaPau Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA (2021); Arts District, Los Angeles, California, USA (2021); MOCA, Tucson, Arizona, USA (2021); Residency Art Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA (2019); Coaxial Arts Foundation, Los Angeles, California, USA (2018); Commonwealth & Council Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA (2018) and Club Pro Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA (2017), among others.

Azikiwe Mohammed (1983, New York City, USA) lives and works in New York. He graduated from Bard College, New York in 2005 where he studied photography and fine arts.His multidisciplinary practice, which merges painting, photography, sculpture, performance, and found ephemera, prioritizes, at its core, the experiences, needs, and subjectivity of people of color in America. The artist hopes to provide a “service” to Black people through his work, to create objects and experiences that allows them to be seen and to make space to listen.Azikiwe Mohammed’s work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally in venues including: the Yeh Art Gallery at St. John’s University, New York, New York, USA (2021); David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA (2020); Anna Zorina Gallery, New York, New York, USA (2020); Elijah Wheat Showroom, Newburgh, New York, USA (2020);  We Buy Gold, New York, New York, USA (2020); SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, USA (2019); Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, Florida, USA (2019);  MoMa PS1, Queens, New York, USA (2018); Antenna Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA (2018); Ace Hotel Chicago, Illinois, USA (2018); the Knockdown Center, Maspeth, New York, New York, USA (2017) and Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA (2017) among others.Mohammed received a Rauschenberg Artists Fund Grant in 2021; the Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Grant in 2016 and the Art Matters Grant in 2015.

Devin N. Morris (1986, Baltimore, Maryland, USA) lives and works in New York.

He studied Fashion Merchandising at University of Maryland Eastern Shore in 2009 and graduated from Towson University, Maryland, USA in Journalism and New Media in 2010. The artist is interested in abstracting American life and subverting traditional value systems through the exploration of racial and sexual identity in mixed media paintings, photographs, writings and video. His works prioritize displays of personal innocence and acts of kindness within surreal landscapes and elaborate draped environments that reimagine the social boundaries imposed on male interactions, platonic and otherwise. Memory subconsciously roots itself in the use of familiar household materials and fabrics, while symbolically he arranges it. He has been in numerous exhibitions at institutions and galleries including: Deli Gallery, New York, New York, USA (2021); Lyles & King, New York, New York, USA (2021); PPOW Gallery, New York, New York, USA (2020); San Diego Arts Institute, San Diego, California, USA (2019); Hales Gallery, New York, New York, USA (2019); The New Museum, New York, New York, USA (2018); AC Institute, New York, New York, USA (2017); Terrault Contemporary, Baltimore, Maryland, USA (2017); MoMA PS1, New York, New York (2016); Yale School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (2016); George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA (2016), among others. Devin N. Morris is the recipient of the 2019 New York Artadia Award. His 2017 solo show at Terrault Contemporary was listed in Artforum as the “Best of 2017,” and he was named by Time Magazine in 2017 as one of “12 African American Photographers You Should Follow.” Devin is also the editor of the great collaborative effort 3 Dot Zine, which is an annual publication that celebrates the futurity of minorities.

Ambrose Rhapsody Murray (1996, Jacksnonville, Florida, USA) lives and works between North Carolina and Florida. They graduated from Yale College on African – American Studies in 2018 and studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, London, England in 2016.

Sewing, painting, collage and material experimentation, making home for Spirit and the mystical to reside has become the grounding force in their work. They especially currently practice on large scale textile collages with a process of exploration of our bodies and land as sites of historical memory and mystical/imaginative potential. Dedicated to the stories, lives and bodies of Black girls, women and queer people, their practice is rooted in ethics of care, reverence, intimacy, time-travel, healing, grief and attending to the stories of the dead.

Ambrose Murray has exhibited in museums and galleries such as: Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, North Caroline, USA (2022); Fridman Gallery, New York, New York, USA (2021); N’Namdi Contemporary, Miami, Florida, USA (2021); Jeffrey Deitch, Miami, Florida, USA (2021); Morán Morán Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico (2021); Yale Afro-American Cultural Center, New Haven, USA (2017).

They have received numerous grants and awards including Alternate ROOTS Project Development Awards (2020); SpiritHouse Inc. Sankofa Cultural Alchemist Award, Durham, North Carolina (2019); Gordon Grand and Cohen Public Service Fellowships (2018/2019); Yale Center for Collaborative Arts & Media Interdisciplinary Arts Award (2017); Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking Innovation Award (2017) and Presidential Scholar in the Arts (2014).

Elise Peterson (1988, Washington, D.C., USA) lives and works in Los Angeles. The artist studied at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and at Parsons School of Design in New York. Peterson is a multi-disciplinary artist working in installation, sculpture, collage, recorded audio and moving images. Her visual practice encapsulates intimate storied moments, void of linear timing, pasted against portals of fantasy while joining moments of internal and external existence. Socially, it is her aim to continue to use art as a platform for social justice while making art accessible for all through exhibitions of public work and beyond. Peterson has shown in group exhibitions in institutions and galleries, including The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York, USA (2019); Baxter St at The Camera Club of New York, New York, USA (2019); Paul Kasmin Gallery New York, New York, USA (2018) and Suite 7a Gallery, Sydney, Australia (2018). Public works have taken place at Central Park, New York, USA;  Manhattan Bridge, New York, USA; Fort Gansevoort, New York, USA; Baie Saint Paul, Quebec, Canada, and Orchard St. Mural, New York, USA. Elise continues to investigate and connect the nuance of the human experience through a limitless practice in storytelling. She has for instances illustrated two children’s books: “The Nightlife of Jacuzzi Gasket”, Dottir Press (2019) and “How Mamas Love Their Babies”, Feminist Press (2018). The artist is also the co-founder of Cool Moms, a podcast focused on mothers who prioritize both their passions and parenting, currently on residency monthly at Soho House.

Adee Roberson (1981, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. Her work is a meditation on symbolism and texture, synthesizing performance and installation, she melds vibration and technicolor visions in the form of abstract paintings, video, collage, sound and soft sculpture. These works offer a refracted timeline of black diasporic movement, weaving sonic and familial archives, with landscape, rhythm, and spirit. This visual language is a way to process the viscerality of grief, celebration, trauma, and healing. She has exhibited and performed at numerous venues including: UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles, California, USA (2021); Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California, USA (2019); Human Resources, Los Angeles, California, USA (2019); Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada (2019); Antenna Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA (2018); Contemporary Art Center New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA (2018); MOCA Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA(2018); Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California, USA (2017); Project Row Houses, Houston, Texas, USA (2017); Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA (2017) and Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, Oregon, USA (2016). Adee has been an Artist-In-Residence at Echo Park Film Center, Los Angeles, California, USA; Treehouse Lagos, Nigeria; and ACRE, Wisconsin, USA. She was a recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Cutting Edge Grant in 2019 and of the 2021 Los Angeles Artadia Award.

Khalif Tahir Thompson was born, lives and works in New York City, USA. He graduated in Painting and Drawing from SUNY Purchase College in New York. The artist’s practice is focused on portraiture and figuration with subjects including family, friends, and cultural figures placed in constructed settings. He works with oil paint, incorporating mixed media, collage, and handmade paper to build the abstracted environments in which the characters exist. Khalif Tahir Thompson believes painting can be a tool in considering the emotional, psychological complexity of an individual’s story and identity. He creates imagery that connects one to the realm of another, through altering perception and invoking empathy towards his subjects, he depicts their reality across a visceral lens. The artist was included in exhibitions and collections as The Grant Hill Collection, Orlando, Florida, USA (2021);  “BUTTER” Fine Art Fair, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA (2021);  HMAAC – Houston Museum of African American Culture, Houston, Texas, USA (2021); The Columbus Museum of Art – Permanent Collection, Columbus, Ohio, USA (2020); 20/20 Gallery, New York, New York, USA (2019) among others. Khalif Tahir Thompson recently received the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Painting (2021);  Culture Push, Associated Artist (2020); Abrons Arts Center Black and Indigenous Artists Fund (2020) and Brooklyn Arts Council (BAF) Recipient (2020).