Welcome to the Residence of the United States Ambassador to Gabon, a home where art speaks to the heart of the rich and enduring connections between our countries. It is a privilege to share with you this exhibition of carefully selected works; each piece is meant to spark curiosity, inspire conversation, and evoke deep emotions.
From the vivid colors of Jacob Lawrence’s Play (Harriet Tubman series) to the dynamic patterns in Edjohnetta Miller’s Working with Color, each piece tells a story. These works, created by African American artists and others whose voices reflect diversity, invite visitors to consider their own experiences and engage with the complex intersections of culture and identity. Art, like diplomacy, is about building bridges, and I hope this exhibition fosters meaningful connections between Gabonese and American perspectives. Read More
Kesha Bruce’s work investigates relationships between history, memory, and “elements of magical-spiritual belief intricately woven through the African diaspora. Often resembling quilts, her mixed media compositions are patchworks of painted fabric pasted onto canvas. These textile collages are the result of hours of treatment, selection, and juxtaposition “until the whole becomes manifestly greater than its parts. Bruce’s process ends with her titling of each work: a poetic articulation of what the work is at this point capable of expressing herself.
A native of Iowa, Bruce received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from Hunter College, New York. She has been awarded fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Puffin Foundation. Collections of her work can be found in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.; the University of Iowa Women’s Center; and the Museum of Modern Art’s Franklin Furnace Artists’ Book Collection, New York.
Jacob Lawrence garnered fame for his bold, graphic paintings that depicted African American historical figures, as well as the daily successes and struggles of those who partook in the Great Migration from the rural South to Northeastern and Midwestern cities. Lawrence painted his subjects in a pseudo-representational style, with bright yet incongruous colors in flat, fragmented forms and space. Originating from Lawrence’s Harriet Tubman series, Play celebrates the African American heroine’s life. The print portrays an event from early in Tubman’s life, when she was probably one of a group of enslaved children spotted playing, carefree, in the distance.
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Inspired by the traditions of African American quilt making and spirituals—religious folksongs associated with the enslavement of people in the American South—Wendell George Brown investigates how those mediums were “sources of protection for generations of enslaved and free Black people through the Civil Rights Movement and beyond.” His works incorporate folk art, as the genre’s “‘outsider’ status often serves to recognize the voice of the voiceless.” Brown’s goal “is to make sense of Social-cultural issues. I hope all viewers see themselves in my work, and our shared desire to be heard, recognized, and treated with human dignity.” Read More
“Through the lens of his Caribbean heritage, GA Gardner’s work uses [print] media content to create an intimate viewpoint of his intercultural experience. He dissects, covers up, reveals, layers, and re-contextualizes the material in the print publications he uses to construct pieces that specifically discuss issues of politics, race, culture, and identity.” By deconstructing the images into torn paper strips and overlaying and unifying colors, Gardner often reduces the original content to shades. He incorporates urban Western grit, geometric African lines, and indigenous weaving techniques in his “unified montage of textures.”
Gardner received a Bachelor of Arts degree in interdisciplinary arts and a Master of Arts degree in education technology from San Francisco State University, California, and a doctorate in art education from the Ohio State University, Columbus. His exhibitions include the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands; the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Washington, D.C.; and Soft Box Gallery, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago.
Pushing the boundaries of fiber design, Aisha Lumumba is known for her creative and innovative textile art, ranging from landscapes to portraits. Her quilts “reflect the human experience through the lens of African and African American lives,” sharing her history and heritage as it was passed down.
Lumumba is also an author who has published thirteen books and appeared in media programs such as TV One’s Living With Soul and WSB’s People to People. Her quilts have been displayed at the Birmingham Public Library Art Gallery, Alabama, and the National Black Arts Festival, Atlanta.
Fiber artist, curator, and lecturer Edjohnetta Miller combines various colors, patterns, and weaves of fabric into improvisational quilts. “I want the viewers to be able to visually enter my quilts and walk through fields of color to the still, contemplative space within,” she says. Working with Color emphasizes the beauty and global significance of ikat textiles from Central Asia, Africa, and Latin America and celebrates the artistry and skill of those who produced them. “My quilt is a testament to the interconnectedness of cultures and the universal language of creativity and craftsmanship,” Miller said.
Miller has been active in the arts community for over thirty years. Widely exhibited in the United States and internationally, her works are in the collections of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Musuem, Washington, D.C.; the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut; and the Nelson Mandela National Museum, Soweto, South Africa.
