Stoic Findings Through Adversity

Medium Description

Oil paint on paper

Artist Description

My work explores how the African Diaspora has impacted the identity of African Americans in Western culture. How concepts of race have been used to suppress African American people and erase their ethnicity. Thus erasing a part of their identity. I want to depict the conceptual struggle of ethnicity against these social constructs and ideas used to oppress it. Through the abstraction of sculpted figures inspired by African sculptures, the depiction of their struggle against these confinements is a representation of how race is often confused for ethnicity, and harmful stereotypes are often confused as culture. These figures battle to survive in an environment that was not intended for them yet pushed upon them. While a lot of my works depicts the struggle of individuals finding themselves in these environments, this work in particular focuses on perseverance through adversity. Despite the seemingly huge disadvantage African American identity experiences in Western Society we continue to prevail.