I am an African American interdisciplinary artist with a disability who is researching and exploring

ways to deconstruct notions of white supremacy as it is promoted in early American art. My

research at Berkeley places materials as a cornerstone of cultural liberation. Coffee, cotton, gold,

clay, sugar, ground pigments are just some of the elements I use as a means of cultural renewal.

My artwork reveals how Black bodies are repositories for trauma – Black bodies are commodities;

even Black joy is commodified. My most recent work tries to depict the violence enacted on Black

bodies without directly showing violence. A seemly endless loop of Black men and women are

harassed, beaten and killed over and over again on social media platforms. Black death is a spectacle,

a sideshow. As an artist do I have a responsibility to address these complexed social issues; more to

the point, how can I document the struggles of urban life without adding to the traumatic terror, the

horror of this American reality? Can this be done with abstraction and if so, how do I keep the work

accessible? What are the materials which mark this space and time, the material associated with

Black destruction?

My art practice incorporates painting, sculpture, and performance art. My most recent paintings

fuse Asian woodblock printing techniques, with Western oil painting. I use ink, oil and natural

pigments on paper, wood, silk, and canvas to create hybrid motifs. I’m a narrative history painter

who explores parallels between 19th century artistic expressions and present-day realities. My

artwork reflects the life I have lived. The work is about the fears and trials of being an African

American man with a disability. The work is about the challenges of urban life and the beauty of our

united human conquest.