MoAD’s physical building may be closed due to the mandatory shelter-in-place, but you can still get your fill of art and artists of the African Diaspora. Each Wednesday at 1:00 pm PST, join MoAD staff members as we visit some of our favorite artists in their studios to see what they’re currently working on and how their work is changing as a result of the quarantine. This is a rare opportunity to hear from artists directly from their studios.

We will follow all talks with an audience Q&A.

Nyame O. Brown is a visual artist born in San Francisco, now living and working in the Bay area. He is an Afrofuturist installation artist working in the media of painting, drawing and cut paper. Brown’s work addresses the Black imagination as a space for new ways to perceive Diaspora not just through unity and similarity’s but looking at the dynamics of difference to further comprehend diaspora.

"I use the folklore cultural practices and symbols from the Diaspora to make paintings of contemporary black mythologies."

Nyame has been an artist in residence at Headlands Center for Contemporary Art, Bemis Center for Contemporary in Omaha Nebraska. The Malcolm X Memorial Foundation worked with Nyame to create a site-specific public art piece for display at the Foundation, he made a homage and double portrait of Malcolm X and the Artist Jack Whitten. Nyame participated for the third time in the International platform showcasing cutting-edge art form across the Black Diaspora-Prizm Art Fair 2018 in Miami held at Mana Contemporary“ he was part of a group show Curated by William Cordova “the transphysics we knew about….”

Recent accolades include Emerging Artist solo show at The Museum of The African Diaspora, Prizm Art Fair 2016 curated by Mikhaile Solomon and William Cordova for Miami Art week, and attending Theaster Gates “Black Artist Retreat” in August. In February 2017, Nyame, in collaboration with Carrie Mae Weems, participated in the Symposium “The interrogation of Forms” -The Changing culture in America at the Park Ave. Armory in NYC.

Brown received his BFA from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago in 1993, and MFA from Yale school of Art and Architecture in 1997. He completed The Joan Mitchell Center Artist in Residence program in New Orleans and is the recipient of the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors award “2003” and The Richard Driehaus Foundation Individual Artist Award “2002”. Solo Exhibitions include: West Virginia University Museum August 2012, “John Henry’s adventures in a Post Black world” at the Hearst Museum in 2013.

“Notes from the Studio Afronauts” April 2013 at Saint Mary’s College of California. Other group shows include “Heroes and Villains” at The San Francisco public library.

Generous support for this project provided by Art Bridges and the Westridge Foundation

This series is supported by the Facebook Art Department, UNTITLED, Art Fairs and The Art Report.