Kulimushi Barongozi was born in Bukavu, DRC. He currently lives in New Haven, CT where he spends his time making art, painting houses and being a translator among other things. Art Mediums includes: mix-media painting, sculpture, storytelling, writing, film, clothing, performance, and installation.

Sydney Bell is a visual artist from New Haven, Connecticut who has been practicing art for over 15 years. For Bell, art has always been a deep source of inspiration and vehicle for self-expression; it has been a creative outlet to both imagine infinite futures and also escape the present moment. Bell states, “My largest drive to continue to create is how subjective art is. All art is beautiful. Even if it’s not. There is no right or wrong, there is no ‘Higher Eye’. The Highest Eye is your own.”

Brock Bowen is a student at Hopkins School. His works explore paper as a mode of self expression, illustrating how the medium can be used to morph a person's image, as a catalyst for creativity, and as a way to preserve memories and experiences. Each of his pieces are photographed from different angles and perspectives to communicate how complex paper, as a mode of creativity and self expression, truly is.

Odette Chavez-Mayo creates images imbued with a tinge of nostalgia and longing, hoping to capture the beauty and complexity of everyday life. Central to her photographic practice is working with processes that take time. Her photographs serve as fragments of memory, bridging past and present, life and loss. They aspire to transcend being mere images and become vessels of emotion that offer glimpses into the depths of her personal experiences and the enduring power of connection.

Demeree Douglas, artistically known as D. Douglas, is a Jamaican-American mixed media artist from Connecticut. Inspired by her own natural hair journey, her work explores the beauty, complexity and cultural pride of black hair. Demeree’s pieces often include abstract elements to represent the numerous interpretations behind not only black hair and black art, but the black woman herself. She aims to empower women of color and challenge societal beauty standards by reflecting on her mission to “normalize” and honor Black hair and identity in art.

Howard el-Yasin is a New Haven, CT based interdisciplinary artist/curator/educator. They have exhibited their artwork nationally, some of which is also in private collections. They are currently an adjunct faculty member at MICA, and the co-founder/curator of SomethingProjects, an artist-run curatorial initiative.

Through the manipulation of set design and photography, Merik Goma’s work takes on a critical view of human conditioning, exploring how we consciously or subconsciously project ourselves onto others. Although the end product of his work often takes the form of a photograph, the symbolic sets he builds and repurposes serve as a foundation for his work, prompting viewers to engage their own personal dialogues and histories.

Sophie Harpo is a black comics artist who explores the intersections of race, gender, magick, and mythology through her original characters and illustrated universe. Their life’s work follows the adventures of their main character, Left Handed Sophie, a young albino black woman coming of age in the Gotham-esque setting of O’shea city. Drawing inspiration from pop art, history, cartoons, drag, and vaudeville, Harpo’s practice defies categorization and invites viewers to reconsider the boundaries of fine art, commercial visual culture, and everyday life.

A native of New Britain, Connecticut, Clymenza Hawkins is a self-taught artist perhaps best known for her collages and photomontages of beautiful, Black women. She photographs Black women, clips their images from magazines, and fuses both  to produce powerful, reimagined portraits of what she terms, “WomenFolk, visionaries of their own destinies.” Adorned with fairy-like accents, and enshrouded by folkloric imagery, Hawkins’s portraits radiate the wisdom, grace and pride of Black women, illuminating their spiritual paths into the unknown.

Tazje Henry-Phillip is a multimedia artist who primarily works through the medium of painting. Her work is both imaginative and abstract with classic influences. She creates art that feels expressive; art that captures things that she enjoys, things that may come to mind, and the ways that she feels. Her hope is to make distinctive and captivating works that evoke emotion and enhance environments.

Kaelynne Hernandez, a first-generation Mexican-American artist from New Haven, Connecticut, graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2022 with a BFA in Painting/Drawing. Influenced by her Mexican heritage and a quest for self-discovery, her art bridges the realms of reality and spirituality, offering a platform to express her experiences as a Latina. Through local art shows, she seeks to connect with others who share similar dichotomous journeys, enriching her understanding of her identity as a first-generation Mexican American.

Ruby Gonzalez Hernandez is an Indigenous Zapotec artist, educator, and curator born on Quinnipiac land (New Haven, Connecticut). As a lens-based artist, she uses photography as an expansive tool through printmaking, silkscreening, and drawing to investigate religious exploitation, spiritual salvation, redemption, institutional oppression affecting BIPOC. Ruby is the founder of Fair-Side, a community of practice that exists to hold a moment, a space, and a place for artists to be in fellowship with one another without shame, outside of the gaze of arts institutions.

Shaunda Sekai Holloway is an artist, curator, teacher, and writer working in New Haven and Hamden. Recently, she curated the “Remember My Struggle: Kae Me Br3” exhibition at Southern Connecticut State University, as a part of SCSU’s “1619: A Week of Commemoration” series. Holloway’s writing has been published in ESSENCE magazine, CT Post, the Inner City News, New Haven Review, Stand Our Ground: Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander and other publications. Her paintings and prints have been exhibited throughout the East Coast, and across the globe, including New Delhi, India. Most recently, Holloway was named a 2020 New Haven Arts Award recipient.

Chris Jones celebrates nocturnal magic, ritual and healing. They paint Black and Brown figures among vivid nature dreamscapes to honor Blackness, queerness, fantasy, and transformation. In their work, tender, loving care goes into the uses of light and darkness to balance fantasies with memories. They approach the painting process with a sensitivity, softness, and an open-mindedness to keep on evolving the work with truths discovered through the process. Like night, they believe in the power of art as a means for people to open up, disarm, maybe even recognize a part of themselves they never had before. Vulnerability creates space for community–they believe that is the only way for people to collectively heal.

Born in Tacoma WA (1990), Christopher Paul Jordan is a painter and public artist who investigates the afterlife of memory, simulating conditions of removal to reexamine human relationships. Jordan is a Leslie Lohman Museum Fellow, A Queer|Art Fellow, and holds an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from the Yale School of Art (2023).

Vijor McCray is a mainly abstract realist painter with over eight years of creative achievements. Her body of work stands as a testament to who she is as an artist. Her art puts you in a moment, whether it be a moment of nostalgia, Blackness, love, loneliness, vulnerability, or triumph. Recently, she has honed in on depicting current events and moments of relatedness. Her goal is to release Black realness in a visually pleasing manner through her gaze as an artist of color. For McCray, being an artist of color is particularly overwhelming because of the sheer number of our shared stories and experiences. Her works are an indulgence of her day to day, her inspirations, her truth, her inner child, and her plain Black life.

Ebony B. Mckelvey tells the stories of Black women—their strength, beauty, and resilience. Growing up, she witnessed how society often overlooked or misrepresented, “our beauty, our struggles, and our triumphs.” With each image, she aims to rewrite that narrative. She creates portraits that empower women of color, celebrating their authenticity and redefining traditional beauty standards. She also finds beauty in the everyday—transforming familiar spaces from her childhood into visual love letters, showcasing her community in a new and powerful light. Every portrait is a statement of pride, strength, and self-love. Her mission is simple: “to create images that honor our stories and remind Black women of the undeniable power they hold.”

Miguel Ángel Mendoza Melchor’s artistic practice encompasses a variety of techniques, ranging from graphite on paper to gouache and acrylic on canvas, where he explores a vibrant and expansive color palette. Through his work, he aims to capture the essence of magical realism, particularly evident in his gouache and acrylic pieces, which reflect the rich tapestry of his cultural heritage, rooted in the traditions and warmth of Oaxaca, México, and extending beyond its borders. In his oil paintings, predominantly portraits, he seeks to celebrate the inherent beauty of Hispanic women. Each portrait—whether of his partner, friends, niece, or coworkers—serves as a testament to the resilience and perseverance of those who navigate the complexities of life in America.

Allison Minto is a Connecticut-based artist and educator. She holds an MFA in Photography from the Yale School of Art, where she received the John Ferguson Weir Award and a BA in Journalism from SUNY-Buffalo State College. Allison's practice is rooted in community, collaboration, and field research. Her photography takes on themes around African American archives, family, history, memory, preservation, and maintenance. Her decision to use archival elements come out of a personal experience. "Not just by digging through my family archives," Allison explains, "but by also recognizing the traditional position many Black women in America have played as carriers of generational narratives."

Aisha Nailah is a Bridgeport, CT based multidisciplinary teaching artist and certified teacher. Her works are mainly abstract and abstract figurative in nature. She has experience in public arts and murals, recently completing the B'port Gates on Baldwin Plaza in Bridgeport. She has exhibited nationally and internationally including the National Black Theater in Harlem and has also co-curated many exhibits and creative events.

Jasmine Nikole is a self-taught artist who started her journey at age five. After a successful career as an engineer with renowned brands, she fully embraced her passion for art in 2021, creating impactful pieces featured in esteemed institutions like Yale University and the Strong Memorial Golisano Children's Hospital. Jasmine's art conveys powerful narratives of hope and healing and community, allowing people to feel seen in their struggles, joys, and accomplishments so that they can feel a sense of belonging.

Moshopefoluwa “MO” Olagunju, a Nigerian-born United States-raised artist and independent curator, explores themes surrounding identity, power dynamics, and unconventional representations of the body. A graduate of Bard College, he was awarded the Milton Sally Avery Arts Scholar and Senior Studio Arts award. MO's artwork has been exhibited at venues such as Susan B. Hilles Gallery in New Haven, the Kipp Gallery in Pennsylvania, and The Residency Project x Motor in Los Angeles.

Daniel “silencio” Ramirez is a first generation Salvadoran-American artist based in New Haven, Connecticut. As a current Artist Corps grantee through the Mellon Foundation and New Haven Arts Council, combined with pursuing a B.A. in Studio Art with an Arts Administration and Cultural Advocacy minor at Southern Connecticut State University, they work towards an equitable and sustainable future for artists in New Haven + broader Connecticut through radical and community based projects.

Alexzandria Robin is a self-taught artist based in Connecticut and California who blends digital and traditional mediums to explore themes of identity, memory, and futurism. Drawing from her ancestral heritage in doll making and storytelling, she challenges conventional narratives and reimagines the roles of race, gender, and history in miniature scale.

Liah Sinq is a New Haven based artist whose work is inspired by her matriarchal line – namely her mother and grandmother– who, alongside their treasure troves of familial artifacts, serve resiliently as each of their generations' altar space. Her photographs aim to document these types of borderless containers that are malleable yet sturdy enough to hold and nourish our clean and dirty pain, which reach across vast distances and generations, to pull us in, and feed us our truth. Currently, Liah works with local families, educational programs, non-profit organizations, and commercial clients, providing a range of documentary forward photography that is engaged with the tender bits of the story.

Jason Ting (b. 1986, Johor Bahru, Malaysia) is an American new media artist based in New Haven, CT. He uses creative coding tools to create abstract animated visuals inspired by forces found in nature, geometric patterns, and light. Ting is a graduate of University of California, San Diego’s Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts program.

Arvia Walker is a Black woman artist, creative and political organizer; blending art with archival preservation and storytelling into her work. Driven by her deep love and passion for Black culture, history, and narratives, Arvia’s art beautifully embodies her conviction that every Black person deserves to be revered.

Jahmane West’s collections of art represent the many diverse concepts from which he draws inspiration. Throughout his years as an artist, he has always been fascinated by art's ability to affect the individual viewer and society as a whole. Exploring various styles, mediums and techniques has expanded his visual lexicon and allowed his work to communicate beyond social barriers.

Yves Wilson is a multidisciplinary artist based in New Haven, Connecticut. His work is a mixture of traditional photography, printmaking, graffiti, and repurposed found objects. The artist brings together African and American visual traditions with the intention of creating new representations of identity and creating new dialogues between the object and audience.