Voices of the Diaspora: The Artisans Behind the Canvas

Gabrielle Goliath (1983- ) is a South African multimedia artist. Goliath's practice works with and within the histories, lifeworlds and present-day conditions of black, brown, femme, and queer life. It rejects classification in a racial-sexual paradigm of violence that dictates a postcolonial world. Her work collapses a heteropatriarchal worldview to build a community built on relation and love. 

Germane Barnes is an American architect and designer. Barnes’ research and design practice investigates the connection between architecture and identity, examining architecture’s social and political agency through historical research and design speculation. He examines how the built environment influences bBack domesticity. Barnes received a Bachelor's of Science in Architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Architecture from Woodbury University. 

Girma Berta (1990- ) is an Ethiopian photographer. His distinct style highlights everyday life in Addis Ababa. Against a mono-colored background residents of the city go about their every day, giving insight into daily life. Berta's photography symbolizes the digital photo revolution happening throughout the continent. 

Gladys Kalichini is a Zambian multidisciplinary artist. Through video, installation, and sculpture she explores colonial and postcolonial histories in Zambia, addressing somber-like themes of trauma and death. Her work highlights the exclusion of Zambian women from Zambian political history.  Kalichini is currently a PhD candidate in Art History at Rhodes University in South Africa. 

Gouled Ahmed (1992- ) is a Somali multidisciplinary artist currently based in Ethiopia. Their work explores themes of memory and belonging through the lens of self-portrait photography, self-fashioning, and textiles. Ahmed's work is inspired by Afro-futurism as they envision a more equitable future in the Horn of Africa. They believe in the transformative power of freedom and self-expression.  Ahmed received a bachelor’s degree in historical studies from Bard College. 

Gregory Rick (1981- ) is an American visual artist from South Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work takes the form of painting, works on paper, and sculpture. Much of his work aims to create narratives considering memory and history.  Rick's work starts with his personal history and then extends outwards into wider narratives and discourse. Rick has called his work "history paintings" carefully archiving the social and political environment. His bold paintings are expressionistic and passionate. He received his BFA from California College of the Arts in 2019 and graduated from Stanford University with an MFA in Art Practice in 2022.

Hako Hankson (1968- ) is a Cameroonian painter. His gestural paintings recall ancestral rites and abandoned beliefs. He sees modernization as a threat to African cultural heritage and religion. Hankson's work is a reminder of these values and a plea to reengage with traditional heritage values. In 2015 he founded In and Off Art Center in Douala, Cameroon.

Hank Willis Thomas (born 1976) is an American conceptual artist. Based in Brooklyn, New York, he works primarily with themes related to identity, history, and popular culture.

Harmonia Rosales (1984- ) is an Afro-Cuban American artist who creates large-scale paintings. Rosales works mostly as a classical painter depicting Black and Latine folks in Renaissance paintings. She incorporates West African mythology including references to Yoruba orishas to center Afro-diasporic perspectives. A consistent thread in her work is to affirm the beauty and dignity of Black women.