I am greatly inspired by elements from daily life in the multicultural Surinamese society. Normal everyday scenes such as carefree and relaxed celebrations and gatherings, the lively hustle and bustle at the marketplace, people in colorful traditional clothing such as the popular Surinamese kotomisi, are a continuous source of inspiration. I also find great pleasure in painting peaceful and pristine natural scenes and landscapes from our rich tropical rainforest. I am unequivocally attracted to the beauty of Surinamese nature. I also have a special affinity for the old and historical. Subjects and materials from our countries history truly fascinate me and I will in some way or another always incorporate historical themes and materials in my work. I am known for example to salvage shutters and doors from old deserted or condemned wooden buildings which I then transform into unique painted art objects which, aside from their artistic value, in my opinion also possess a valuable historic quality. I like to experiment with several materials, styles and techniques and never limit myself to a predetermined plan during my creative processes. Figurative as well as abstract paintings, fine art prints done in several techniques, wooden sculptures and other multimedia experiments with found or natural materials on canvas, paper and hardboard are all part of my work. Fibers from palm trees and natural pigments which I extract from mahogany wood are materials I currently enjoy working with.

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Kim Yantis is a visual artist who fueled by collaboration, sewing, and design. Her current project with Lucinda Linderman, “Suiting-up for the Future,” is a wry runway show and workshop series of sustainable workwear and utilitarian accessories that act as “Wearable Tools for the 21st Century.” Together they create demonstration pieces, allegorical costumes, take-away postcards and performance works.Garments and accessories are available for purchase and commission.

‘As an artist it is not my intention to simply create a pretty picture, because I have a greater purpose in mind. Through my art and poems I hope to contribute to raising the consciousness of the general public and to encourage discussions regarding those rather forgotten but so important subjects. ‘ With my art I express my thoughts and emotions on several subjects related to the social and political circumstances in Suriname and other places around the world. Initially, many of my artworks and especially my installations cause a shock effect under the general public, but that is exactly my intention. I want to confront the public with those subjects which they are so often inclined to ignore or just close their eyes to. By doing so I hope to force people in Suriname to think about these controversial subjects and hope to break the tradition of silent acceptance in our country. The revolution of 1980, the December murders of 1982 and the effect those historical events have had, and still have, on our society today, are a recurring theme in my work. But also current social and political issues, in Suriname as well as abroad, are subjects I touch upon regularly. My technique is often influenced by the inspiration I receive from the methods of my predecessors out of the era of Dadaism. The use of collage techniques and simple objects is currently characteristic for my art. I also often write poetry which in some cases relates to a specific work of art. As an artist it is not my intention to simply create a pretty picture, because I have a greater purpose in mind. Through my art and poems I hope to contribute to raising the consciousness of the general public and to encourage discussions regarding those rather forgotten but so important subjects.

lance minto-strouse is a multidisciplinary artist working with painting, sculpture, digital art, film and collage. He explores temporality through the history of reclaimed materials to create dialogue concerning, systematic iniquity, disposability, community and race. Minto-strouse is an alchemist who applies the transformative process to find new and more relatable ways of understanding humanity . He sees the outside world as an extension of his studio. He assembles interactive community based sculptures to generate dialogue that reflect new understandings of the past as a way to build our future. Lance crafts this as a way of honoring and paying homage to rituals rooted in his Afro-spiritual ancestral origins. of Contemporary Art in North Miami (MOCA), also Arts 4 Learning, Teen Residency Program and later, Perez Art Museum Miami’s (PAMM) Perez Teen Council. Lance began to commit more time towards his creative passions by matriculating at the New World School of the Arts, a public high school and college in Downtown Miami, FL. Currently, Lance Minto-Strouse lives and works in Miami, Florida, pursuing studio and sound arts, as well as curatorial studies. He recently accomplished multiple site-specific community interventions addressing themes of gentrification, isolation, and racism throughout different South Florida neighborhoods. Lance also participated in “The Flag Project”, Bridge Red, North Miami FL, 2021-2022, “The Matrix of Creativity: Where the River Meets the Sea,” New Orleans African. American Museum, LA .2021 “Follow Me By The Tracks,” North Miami, FL. 2021 “A Wonder in the Wilderness,” Vizcaya Museum, FL

Laura Ann Samuelson (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist working in contemporary performance, sculpture, and writing. Their work follows the transmission of feeling across objects, sites, and bodies, searching for new strategies to help us bear impermanence, attachments to living, and to one another. Laura Ann’s projects have been presented in Colorado, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, California, Germany, Sweden, and France, and they have been an artist-in-residence at the Denver Art Museum, Dance Initiative, Skogen Arts Sweden, and the Colorado Conservatory of Dance. Laura Ann currently collaborates with Ondine Geary, and has worked extensively with Colorado-based performance groups such as Joanna and the Agitators, square product theatre, as well as Buntport Theater Company, and Screw Tooth Theater Company. They are mentored by Michelle Ellsworth and have toured with Ellsworth’s POST-VERBAL SOCIAL NETWORK. In 2020, Laura Ann received an MFA in Dance from the University of Colorado-Boulder, with secondary emphases in visual art and somatics, and a graduate certification in Emergent Technologies & Media Arts Practices from the College of Media, Communication, and Information. There, they received the Center for Arts & Humanities Graduate Fellowship & the Charlotte York Irey Scholarship for their creative work and research. Additionally, Laura Ann holds a BA in dance & writing from Hampshire College and is currently a Feldenkrais practitioner in training under Alan Questel.

Lauren Shapiro currently lives and works in Miami, Florida. Shapiro received an MFA from the University of Miami in 2016. She integrates ceramics and technology to uncover and communicate insights from the natural world, often collaborating with scientists to influence projects by the diverse ecosystems of South Florida and beyond. Selected solo exhibitions include "Future Pacific" (2020) at Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami, Florida; "Garden Portals" (2021) at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Miami, Florida; and "Fragile Terrains" (2018) at Bianca Boekel Galeria, São Paulo, Brazil. Selected group exhibitions include "Intricate Oceans, Coral in Contemporary Art" (2023) with Coastal Discovery Museum, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina; "Design Miami" (2021) with Todd Merrill Studio, Miami, Florida; and "Projektraum M54" (2017) in Basel, Switzerland. Shapiro received awards and commissions from the New York Foundation for the Arts (2023), Knight Foundation(2021), Andy Warhol Foundation (2019), Miami Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs (2020-2023), and Art in Public Places (2021,2022). Her artwork is part of the Soho House Art Collection and Jorge M. Perez Collection.

My lens engages with individuals and their spaces, centering the importance of reconstructing and unpacking the representation of intersectional experiences. Through exploring intersectional feminist literature and photographic journals, my work explores shared human experiences while highlighting the power of differences. My desire to explore identity outside of the socialization sphere motivated my interest in intersectional feminist literature, especially as that relates to the navigation of my career as an artist and curator. My work is influenced by my experiences as Afro-Latina, creating imagery that speaks to my heritage and to the connections I have made along the way. Photography helps me build bridges, fortifying establishing friendships and creative experiences within the communities that I create in and with. Through my work, I continue to survey the many facets of emotions and subjectivity that are present in spaces that people move within.

Lesli Ann Belnavis‘love and passion for the arts led her to study at the Florida State University where she pursued a Bachelor Degree in Studio Art and a Masters Degree in Art Therapy. While studying for her Bachelor’s Degree she explored many genres of art and it was here she fell in love with photography. This flamed passion later ignited to digital photography where she researched varying themes and topics. By2015,conödent and ready with a body of work entered the JCDC Visual Art competition with her piece“Acceptance”.July 2017 saw bigger and more promising opportunities internationally, as she was asked to participate in the Jamaica Spiritual Exhibition based in London at the historical St.Stephen Walbrook Cathedral and it was here she contributed two pieces “Peaceful Resolve”and ”EyesWide Shut”.

Margaret Chen was born in St. Catherine, Jamaica. She received a Diploma distinction in Sculpture at the Jamaica School of Art ( now the Edna Manley College of the Visual & Performing Arts) in Kingston and BFA and MFA from York University in Toronto. Canada. The persistent themes in her large, intricate mixed media constructions explore the body's subterrene and reflect an inner journey. Organic and man-made materials are transformed into metaphors for impermanence and temporality. Her solo exhibitions in Jamaica include X-radiation , currently on (2024), Substrata in 2019 and Ovoid (2003) in Kingston and in Toronto Subterrene (2000) . Group exhibitions include everything slackens in a wreck in NYC (2022), Cultural Encounters / No oceans between us (2021), Circles and Circuits in Los Angeles, California (2017), the National Biennial at the National Gallery of Jamaica (2017) and About Change (2011) at the IDB Gallery, Washington DC. Her participation in several artist residencies include the Bemis Centre for Contemporary Art in Nebraska. Chen currently lives in Jamaica and Toronto.

Delmont emerges as a dynamic multidisciplinary artist in the vibrant heart of Miami Gardens (accurately known as Carol City), where cultural diversity thrives. He prioritizes making art about the catacombs that are this city and its dwellers, the people cameras do not follow, the people with vast lives who need their stories told and are unaware of it. Delmont took consolation in the worlds of music and cinema from a young age, with luminaries such as Outkast, Curtis Mayfield, and Kendrick Lamar serving as a sonic background for his path of self-discovery. Films like "Equilibrium," "Boyz n the Hood," and "Memento" provided as entry points into the study of identity, blackness, and masculinity. These artistic forms were his sanctuaries, allowing him to be free of society standards and celebrating his distinct individuality. As Delmont's artistic journey progressed, he became affected not only by his heroes' songs and storytelling, but also by the mechanical world. His father, a talented contractor and fabricator, exposed him to a world of hydraulics, tools, and machines, fostering in him a fascination with mechanics, building structures and alway finding a way to make it work. At the age of 25, Delmont boldly embraced self-taught artistry, creating dramatic portraiture and expansive black iconography wrapped in permeable surroundings using paints, construction materials, and fabrics on wooden frames, recalling his blue-collar upbringing. Delmont's art celebrates the strength of the black experience, which is currently experiencing a revival that reflects a modern-day renaissance. Delmont feels like house parties resemble masquerades, DJ speakers become orchestral symphonies of kings, and rolling dice represent the rolling heads within the Colosseum. The audience cheers as we argue domino tables. We are as captivated by entertainment as we were then and are now, drowning in vices. Delmont's paintings serve as a reminder that we exist, have always existed, and that our experiences deserve to be shared-in full color.

In the past years, I continue working in images that compile and re-interpret signs, forms and marks. These images are manifested in a poetic form…in essence, that tends to explore the spaces beyond, within the urban surrounding. Spontaneous gestures, forms changing, foot prints, are the theater of the astonishment, in an oneiric way… My obsession of a new place….

Michael Elliott is typically known as a fine art painter, who nurtures his craft in the style of photorealism. Born in Manchester, Jamaica Michael had always been experimenting with different mediums and techniques in art through his early years. Realism became his preferred style during his tenure at the Edna Manley College of the Visual Arts and while attending, Michael developed a keen interest in photography to the extent that it also became an assisted medium in developing the look and feel of his paintings. Michael Elliot’s artwork “Seeds of the Last Tide (Clotilda)” from the DVCAI exhibition, “Depth of Identity: Art as Memory and Archive,” was recently acquired by the Smithsonian, Caribbean, and Global South Archives. The artist’s participation in Windrush Portraits, Public Art Exhibition for Black History Month by John Hansard Gallery London, and Kingston Creative. Elliott is a co-founder of the DVCAI Photo Collective, an ongoing participating artist with DVCAI, a winner of multiple DVCAI Catalyst Awards, and a participant in multiple exhibitions and Cultural Exchanges in the Caribbean.

Michele A. Parchment is Brandywine Workshop and Archives’ Executive Director. She joined BWA in August 2023, succeeding Founder Allan L. Edmunds. Parchment’s extensive résumé includes more than 30 years working with nonprofit and for-profit organizations in arts and museum management and as a senior supervisor for public engagement and educational programming, visitor and volunteer services, collections, exhibitions, cultural festivals, and community initiatives. She has worked with influential museums across the United States, and has served in leadership roles in developing and opening new facilities at the Sarasota Art Museum, FL; Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, NC; Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI; and Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture in Baltimore, MD. She began her career in the arts at the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY, and was registrar/consultant with Diversity Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator (DVCAI), Miami, before joining BWA. Parchment earned her BA in liberal arts from Excelsior University, Albany, NY; MA in history from American Public University, Charles Town, WV; and an advanced certificate in nonprofit leadership from Duke University, Durham, NC. In her words, “As our global communities continue to grow, it is important as a cultural professional that I share my experiences by continuing to bring diverse communities together. We all learn differently; we all see the world from various lenses. Through educational and cultural institutions, we are given the opportunity to explore, experience, enhance, enrich, and share our diverse histories, cultures, and values.”

Minia Biabiany works and lives between Mexico City and Guadeloupe. In her practice, Minia Biabiany uses the deconstruction of narratives in installations, videos and drawings, by building up ephemeral poetics of forms in relation with colonial presence, past or present. Her work proceeds from an investigation on the perception of space to the use of the paradigms of weaving and opacity on language. She initiated the artistic and pedagogical collective project Semillero Caribe in 2016 in Mexico City and continue to explore the deconstruction of narratives with the body and concepts from Caribbean authors with the experimental platform Doukou.

Moisés Aragón is a self-taught interdisciplinary artist from Cuba whose work interprets personal mythology with his reality. Moisés interest in the arts started when he was introduced at a young age to the act of “artistic recognition,” having had his self-portrait drawing assignment exhibited in the school’s cafeteria. During his formative years after the 9/11 incident, he began to question his relation to the “American empire” as it stood as a beacon of expansion during those initial years of war and occupation in the Middle East. Intrepid curiosity led to the acknowledgment that he had been born in exile and would like to return home.

Active as a composer and performer, Molly Joyce’s music has been described as “impassioned” (The Washington Post), written to “superb effect” (The Wire), and “vibrant, inventive music that communicates straight from the heart” (Prufrock’s Dilemma). Her works have been commissioned and performed by several distinguished ensembles including the New World Symphony, New York Youth Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and the New Juilliard, Decoda, andContemporaneous ensembles. Additionally, her work has been performed at the Bang on a Can Marathon and VisionIntoArt’s FERUS Festival, and featured in outlets such as Pitchfork, WNYC’s New Sounds, Q2 Music, I Care If You Listen, and The Log Journal. Her debut EP, Lean Back and Release, was released in January 2017 on New Amsterdam Records to much acclaim. Featuring violinists Monica Germino and Adrianna Mateo, the EP was praised as “energetic, heady and blisteringly emotive” by Paste Magazine and “arresting” by Textura. Additionally, Molly’s piece Rave was included on pianist Vicky Chow’s recent album on New Amsterdam, and the work was subsequently featured on Pitchfork and WNYC’s New Sounds. Past seasons have seen commissions from performers such as Avi Avital, Vicky Chow, Mike Truesdell, Present Music, and the Grand Valley State New Music Ensemble, among others. Additionally, Molly has received grants from New Music USA, the Jerome Fund/ American Composers Forum, and has held residencies at ArtCenter/ South Florida, Headlands Center for the Arts,and Willapa Bay AiR. As a performer, Molly often plays on her vintage toy organ, an instrument she bought on eBay and has performed on in multiple capacities; including solo, with toy piano, and with a beatboxer. She is additionally active as a DJ, spinning under the moniker “DJ MJ.” Molly has studied at The Juilliard School (graduating with scholastic distinction), the Royal Conservatory in The Hague as a recipient of the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund Grant, and the Yale School of Music.

Monica Tyran is a screenprinter/printmaker and arts administrator who was born and raised in New Orleans. She creates illustrations and printed goods that reflect her imagination and formative imagery connected to her upbringing and family memories. She studied screenprinting and printmaking at Penland School of Arts & Crafts and letterpress & bookmaking at San Francisco Center for the Book. Her work has been exhibited at the New Orleans Community Printshop, Contemporary Arts Center, and Stella Jones Gallery in New Orleans. Tyran earned a BA in Visual Arts from Dillard University and a MA in Arts Administration from the University of New Orleans.

Soulful figures textured with emotion emerge, revealing colorful, lyrical stories moving fluidly across canvas. Luck models the features of figures and natural forms using fragments of found paper. “As I assemble a collage, I often wish I could rearrange pieces of my life as I do pieces of colored paper.” she explains. “Each day I am reminded that life choices are not as easily moved.” Luck is an award-winning international artist and muralist. She has exhibited her work frequently at galleries and museums across the US including: The African American Museum of Dallas, The South Carolina State Museum, and the Heinz History Center Museum in Pittsburgh. She was chosen to receive one of the emerging artist scholarships for the Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was also honored to be chosen as one of the 25 honorees of the Woman and Girls Foundation’s celebration of Women in the Material World at the Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh. Monique’s work as a public muralist with the Sprout Fund is featured in the PBS Documentary, “It’s the Neighborhoods.” She was also awarded a grant from the Multi Cultural Arts Initiative in Pittsburgh to create a permanent mural Installation in honor of August Wilson. Monique has been the recipient of several awards including: Judges Choice award and Best in Show award at Festival in the Park Charlotte, NC. Honorable Mention, Beverly Hills Art Show, and Best Bearden Inspired Collage at the Mint Museum. She was honored to be selected twice as one of Charlotte’s ArtPop Street Gallery Public Art artists. Her most recent projects include a residency at the McColl Center for Arts + Innovation in Charlotte, NC; and a large public art installation “Hope Springs Forth Brightly” for the city of Asheville, NC through a collaboration with local artists and community members for the Celebrating African Americans Through Public Art Project. Her public art installation “Welcoming Dreams” in Charlotte can be viewed at the Renaissance West Community Initiative. Currently, her artwork can also be found at the Harvey B. Gantt Center Museum in Charlotte.

Nadia Rea Morales is a contemporary artist and educator living in Baltimore, Maryland. She was born in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico in 1989, shortly after her family migrated to Park City, Utah where she spent most of her young life. As an adult she lived Salt Lake City where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with an emphasis in photography from Westminster College. She is heavily influenced by her Mexican traditions and Catholic background, calling dominant narratives about gender, sex and ethnicity into question. While navigating complex social and political spaces, she often strives to achieve balance between her native culture and her American upbringing. She is inspired by both worlds but feels most comfortable living in pursuit of her own voice. Nadia is the first generation in her family to pursue a master’s degree, receiving her MFA in the Mount Royal School of Art from MICA. She currently works as an art educator in a residential school for adolescence with behavioral and emotional disabilities while also maintaining and active art practice.

Nadine Natalie Hall is originally from Bull Bay, a small coastal community in East Rural, St. Andrew, Jamaica. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in Textiles and Fiber Arts at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts and an MFA at the University of Miami in Sculpture. She was a recent visiting artist of DVCAI. Her earliest in influences into the world of textiles were spawned from her childhood, where she would watch her mother – a dressmaker – transform yards of ordinary fabrics into beautiful garments. Although not strictly a maker of clothing Nadine Hall is exploring ways to expand her textiles beyond the known and expected.

Najja Moon is a Miami based artist and cultural practitioner, born and raised in Durham, North Carolina. Her visual arts practice uses drawing, text and sound to explore the intersections of queer identity, the body and movement, black culture and familiar relations both personal and communal. A preacher’s kid and daughter of musicians raised on gospel music and HBCU’s, order Augmentin online before she committed to being an artist full time, she was a basketball player who used to be a kid who wanted to be an artist. Her art practice has in some ways become the probing of these intersections. Moon is the inaugural artist to be commissioned by the Bass Museum for their “New Monuments” series. She is also the winner of a 2020 Knight New Work Grant for her ongoing project “The Huddle is a Prayer Circle”. Other recent exhibitions and commissions included: What if the Matriarchy was here all along at the Altadena Library in Los Angeles, CA (2022), buy Cleocin without a prescription Blueprint at Bridge Red Studios in North Miami, FL (2022) and Dust Specks on the Sea at Villa du Parc Contemporary Art Center in Annemasse, France(2022). She was also awarded a public art commission in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2022.

Nicole Winter is an emerging Caribbean artist who specializes in the field of ceramics. She has recently obtained her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts and is currently continuing her studies in the field of Art Education at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. Nicole has been practicing her art and exhibiting locally since 2006. Her work and her approach are unconventional. Her process embodies her exploration with wildlife and life cycles using clay as her medium. Her designs are inspired by Myriapods and other underground creatures that propel her intuition of equilibrium and poise especially through the drama and dynamism of these forms. Nicole sees her work as a metaphor of the society we live in; while her works aim to educate, bring awareness, admiration and appreciation of particular functions within nature. Nicole hopes that her sculptures will inspire innovative ways of viewing referencing and using the environment as a resource for creating contemporary art works.

Onajide Shabaka, is an interdisciplinary cultural practitioner and currently lives and works in Miami, Florida. Shabaka was awarded an MFA from Vermont College of the Fine Arts and represented by Emerson Dorsch Gallery, Miami, Florida. Through a well developed research based walking practice working both outdoors and in the studio where I explore the environment and its biology allowing site specific histories to reveal untold or hidden narratives.