Nicole Dixon

Oakland, CA native Nicole Dixon received a BA in Studio Art at Spelman College in Atlanta, in 2002. In addition to public exhibitions, she has produced private and commissioned works for over two decades. Nicole has served as the altar-artist for numerous gatherings, conferences, and activist organizations. She is also a Montessori preschool teacher and firmly believes education and creative expression should go hand-in-hand. She teaches art to youth and adults alike, which has taken her as far as the Kalahari as a guest art instructor. Nicole uses art as an interactive medium, and vehicle for self-transformation, community bridge-building, and positive social change. Living in a society where boxes and labels are a way of life, forces one to hide and resent the parts of themselves that are not accepted. Never being strictly one thing or another fostered the realization that “I am all things” “We are all things”.

“Telling stories that are unheard, or undervalued gives greater meaning to any work.” -RA

“My objective is to make the viewer connect and think outside themselves or what they know to be true. To see beyond the pretty picture on the wall” -RA

In a time when injustice, apathy, and all the blatant “-isms” are stealing Black lives and liberty, it will take a shift in mainstream consciousness to humanize blackness, and an arsenal of tools for Black people to protect their identity and spirit. Using art as her tool, Nicole's work presents blackness as spiritual, empowered, anchored in culture, beautiful, and unapologetic. It draws viewers in, and gives them a more holistic view of blackness to take out the door, down the street, and across the path of the next black person they meet. It offers Black viewers a spiritual and cultural touchstone to arm and affirm them as they brave each day. Black women have a unique power that can destroy obstacles and birth solutions if they maximize their potential, and therefore Nicole has centered black women in her art for this exhibition.

Nedra T. Williams

Nedra Williams is a visual artist and designer from Oakland, CA. Her works have graced album and magazine covers and continue to reclaim spiritual nuance in the Everyday. She is an abstract- collagist, who has a passion for color, line, and form. Nedra uses a variety of varied papers, fabric, stencils, and photography as her collage tools. She favors acrylics because it lends itself to layering and color boldness. As each layer unfolds, the viewer is invited into a deeper dimension of a familiar sign that can suddenly change into a new interpretive twist.

Romare Bearden’s groundbreaking collage techniques and African- American themes appear in many of her Artworks, she is inspired by Basquiat, Driscoll, and Pikoli to dream. When she isn’t working in her studio, she spends time in her garden, reading, writing, and crocheting.

Living in a society where boxes and labels are a way of life, forces one to hide and resent the parts of themselves that are not accepted. Never being strictly one thing or another fostered the realization that “I am all things” “We are all things”.

“Telling stories that are unheard, or undervalued gives greater meaning to any work.” -RA

“My objective is to make the viewer connect and think outside themselves or what they know to be true. To see beyond the pretty picture on the wall” -RA

Artist Statement

The Art Diva project is an ongoing process of Nedra's reflections on Black women through the art of collage. These collages use the technique of Zentangle merged with African symbolism, Orisa mythology, and astrology to elicit the forms of the DIVAS. Each new Diva/Woman image will be a statement of our historical selves as we perform our "Everyday" magic upon the World and life. The citied works reflect the direction of the Project but are not limited to these images alone.

Rae Akino

Seattle based, self-taught visual artist. What began as a coping mechanism for depression and anxiety became a lens to examine and understand the world. Being closeted, a slave to other’s expectations, and losing one of the most important people to their existence caused a mental, emotional, and spiritual paralysis. The need to escape turned into isolation, until they were encouraged to draw their way out of it.
Living in a society where boxes and labels are a way of life, forces one to hide and resent the parts of themselves that are not accepted. Never being strictly one thing or another fostered the realization that “I am all things” “We are all things”.

“Telling stories that are unheard, or undervalued gives greater meaning to any work.” -RA

“My objective is to make the viewer connect and think outside themselves or what they know to be true. To see beyond the pretty picture on the wall” -RA

Artist Statement

The most exploited, under-represented, and stereotyped story is that of the Black Woman. Only ever allowed to expose fragments of truth chained to satire. It’s time to break that chain and reclaim the scattered pieces of truth, Black WOMAN Is God

"Yemọja" is coming to life. It's time to tell our stories, our hero's and villains, Gods and Goddesses. Folklores, fairytales, and bedtime stories long forgo...

Akanbi Motunrayo

Am Akanbi Motunray by name , Nigerian female Artist who study fine and applied art at the federal college of education Oyo, I was born in Nigeria and study in Nigeria , have been an artist for over some year and am so proud to be one of the black woman in art have always love paintings alot so I work with both oil color and oil pastel on canvas
Artists statement
My creativity tells more about feelings and emotions ,I pass my messages through my paintings and I communicate through my Artworks, my paintings are form through capturing the moment in visual forms which I really do express myself with some brushstrokes and brilliant color that are quite attractive.
As a contemporary artist, Yoruba culture often inspires my creativity and makes me understand more about who we really are and what it means to be black , capturing the human figure in a series of nude painting is also an idea for me to express my creative way of thinking.
Every pieces of artworks I paint is a study of an outstanding movement in contemporary art ,
Yasmin believes that art is a strong indicator of the soul of a civilisation and its people, that it is a living link between the mundane and the majestic, that it can communicate across divides and that it amplifies both sublime and disturbing aspects of life. Typically, her work is in thematic series –I(n Praise of African Spirits, Justice or Just-Us, Limitations as Opportunities, Internal Landscapes)-- that depict issues of consciousness, inequities, interconnectedness, hopefulness and joy. She authored a book on the development of art and consciousness, entitled, Heart Visions.

Yasmin has exhibited in the San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Monica, Hermosa Beach, Los Angeles, Mill Valley, New York, City, Santa Cruz and the Lake Tahoe area.

Artist Statement

My creativity tells more about feelings and emotions, I pass my messages through my paintings and I communicate through my Artworks, my paintings are formed through capturing the moment in visual forms which I really do express myself with some brush strokes and brilliant colors that are quite attractive.
As a contemporary artist, Yoruba culture often inspires my creativity and makes me understand more about who we really are and what it means to be black, capturing the human figure in a series of nude painting is also an idea for me to express my creative way of thinking.
Every piece of artworks I paint is a study of an outstanding movement in contemporary art,

Yasmin Sayyed

Yasmin believes that art is a strong indicator of the soul of a civilization and its people, that it is a living link between the mundane and the majestic, that it can communicate across divides, and that it amplifies both sublime and disturbing aspects of life. Typically, her work is in thematic series –(In Praise of African Spirits, Justice or Just-Us, Limitations as Opportunities, Internal Landscapes)-- that depict issues of consciousness, inequities, interconnectedness, hopefulness, and joy. She authored a book on the development of art and consciousness, entitled, Heart Visions.

Artist Statement

The experiences as African-ancestried people living in the hegemonic inequities of the US can foster epistemological realities of ofttimes greatly warranted suspicion and cynicism, but those inequities do not define the sum total of the diasporic African people in the US.
Yasmin states that is important for her to remember as an artist and a human being to live and create in the spirit of Iwa rere, (good character) Ubuntu, (our humanity is unambiguously defined by how we see and honour the humanity of others), and in unapologetic hopes they situate in her soul the energy to struggle against that which is wrong with the world.
Yasmin’s paintings both decry injustices and celebrate beatific conditions of being alive. She hopes they express the capacious magnificence and munificence of Africans at the table of humanity.

Lakiba Pittman

Lakiba Pittman is a creative artist, consultant and educator. She is a Senior Adjunct Professor at Menlo College and she also designs and delivers specialized workshops on race and racism, cultural sensitivity and competency, social justice, mindfulness, and trauma healing. Lakiba is certified to teach Stanford’s Compassion Cultivation Training © Workshops. She is currently working on her 2nd edition of her self-published book “Bread Crumbs from The Soul… Finding Your Way Back Home,” a showcase featuring her original art, poetry and autobiographical reflections. In 2020, she opened as a feature guest poet at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MOAD) Open Mic Series. For the last few years, her art has been featured along with over fifty women at The Black Woman is God art exhibit at SomARTS in San Francisco. She was one of the featured poets at the 50th year celebration of the Black Arts Movement, and most recently was featured in Black Fire – This Time, showcasing Black poets from the Black Consciousness movement. Lakiba was a keynote presenter using poetry as a self-healing process for Sister Spirit’s Annual Retreat and most recently was a featured speaker at Stanford University’s Fireside Chats on wellness. Lakiba was the Director for Nairobi Institute of Cultural Arts and was a founding member of the Congolese Music & Dance Ensemble – Fua Dia Congo. She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Psychology with a specialization in Consciousness, Spirituality and Integrated Health.

Artist Statement

These pen & ink drawings are part of my Ancestral Images series. They represent the grounding and realization that the ancestral realms are always around and about us -- feeding us images, sounds, words, songs and essences of life beyond words to heal and guide us on this earthly walk. Each of my art pieces represent stages of my own development and ongoing healing of historical and current day traumas reminding me ... reminding us that the Spirit realm is always at hand... that is as we dip down into our own souls we will find our way ... that a word, a song, an art piece can lead us home to where we know ourselves to be Divine .. surely where the Black Woman is God.

Lauren Catalina

Lauren Catalina is a woman who has an open spirit and enjoys being of service to her community.
She is an AfroLatina and native of California, a heart healer and visionary artist. She has her mother to thank for her artistic DNA and her grandmothers to thank for her connection to Spirit. You might find her doing a variety of things that most others stray away from; midwifing the birthing, the dying, administering Reiki, hosting Red Tents, and creating ceremonies for her beloveds. She considers herself a Sacred Artist, providing a safe space in which others can be held; free from worry or judgement. This is her gift.
Travel, creativity, shamanism and the arts are her lifeline and sacred work. The blank canvas is her portal into the quantum realm where she prays in paint, allowing her Muse to create. She paints the Divine Feminine that comes through the paintbrush over abstract layers of bold colors and symbology. Her passion and purpose as an Artist, are to teach, listen, share story, live in the moment, and embrace being human in all its facets, shades and colors.
As a member of the African diaspora, she is humbled and honored to share what comes through her representations of Black Women As Goddess.

Artist Statement

Lauren’s first acrylic painting, as a teenager, was inspired by a photo in National Geographic. It was of an Indigenous African person standing on one leg with a stick, at sunset. It was graded poorly by her art teacher, devastated, she forgot about it and herself as an artist.
Many years later, guided by her ancestors she studied and practiced shamanism. She created beautiful pieces of art with her hands; drums, baskets, altars and finally she added the canvas and paintbrush to her medicine basket. At the end of her training, by divine providence, her original high school art piece was given back to her as a gift.
Today she finds inspiration from life, trees, nature, and current happenings in the world. She makes marks and adds dots, along with prayers, words, and symbols often unseen. Finally a woman emerges out from the underpainting and boldly, lays witness to God.

Delgreta Brown

Contemporary and Afrofuturism Visual Artist Delgreta Brown is a graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana (2005). Since 2008, the emerging visual artist has exhibited her artwork throughout Northern California.

Delgreta participated in the curated art exhibit "Nightlight Multimedia Festival" in 2017. The festival hosted by SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco, debuted her experimental black-light installation titled "The Nightshade Series."

The dynamic artist accepted an Eco-art project from Sacramento First Festival in May 2018. The commissioned project was an art installation representing cultural diversity with the use of recyclable materials. At the music festival she displayed a unique interactive optical, sculptural and luminous installation titled, "The Ocularium."

The Sacramento-based artist was invited as a featured Visual Artist for the "Arts Equity Summit" in 2019 hosted by Arts Connect International (ACI) in Boston, MA. She is a 2019 Grant-recipient of the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI).

The self-taught artist's recent solo exhibitions include "Immortal Hues" in (2018) and "Convergence" in (2019). She recently completed a five-month exhibition at Marysville City Hall in late 2019. The exhibitions introduced abstract works and mixed medium portraits. Delgreta's vibrant art often expresses themes of love, hope, music, prosperity, exploration, navigation, sensuality, evolution, cultural aesthetics and spirituality through an African American perspective.

Currently, she is a "Sower" Grantee of the Black Artists Fund (BAF). Delgreta continues to expand in her artistry.

Artist Statement

Collectively the submitted Afrofuturism works of art represent topics pertinent to the African Diaspora. The five paintings address divinity, matriarchy, celestial and terrestrial origins, autonomy, self-awareness, self-love, the attributes of natural states, navigation, coding, technology and evolution.