Nasir Young received his BFA from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art in 2021. Nasir is currently represented by Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia. In 2020 he was awarded The Raymond D. & Estelle Rubens Travel Scholarship to go to London. Young was awarded an illuminate arts grant in 2021 and 2022, and a 2024 Elizabeth greenshields grant recipient. He was the Second place winner of the Philadelphia Sketch Club 158th exhibition of small oils, a 2022 Davinci Art Alliance Resident, and 2023 Delaware Contemporary resident. Nasir’s primary source of imagery is the everyday scenes of urban inner city life is influenced by the shared visual language between places. He had his first solo show in February of 2024 ,and has had multiple group shows around the Philadelphia region.

As an illustrator and designer, Shahvteeaylah Williams (Shahv) enjoys creating vibrant, expressive artwork and colorful wearables. She is a mixed-media artist who prefers working with acrylic ink and colored pencils, before polishing designs digitally.

She completed her BFA in Illustration at the University of the Arts in 2021 and currently works as a freelancer and Young Artist Instructor for Moore College of Art & Design. Since graduating, she has been selected as a 2023 InLiquid Wind Fellow, had her work displayed at the InLiquid Gallery in Philadelphia, and has been the featured artist in the April 2023 issue of Surface Design News.

Her work is inspired by comics, animation, nature, and fashion. In her practice, she is driven to depict the world around her through a lens of joy and silliness; often creating art to process difficult personal experiences and paint an authentic, relatable, and refreshing portrait of black womanhood.

When not working, she can be found at the roller rink, her local coffee shop, or hanging out in the many green spaces in Philadelphia.

Ronald L. Washington earned his B.F.A. in Illustration from the University of the Arts. R.L. Washington’s work has been showcased in numerous galleries, including Moody Jones Gallery, Dizyners Gallery, Sande Webster Gallery, and the Artists House Gallery. His exhibitions have also extended to esteemed institutions such as the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Gallery Museum, Temple University, the Afro-American Art Museum, Hampton University, the Balch Institute, the Free Library of Philadelphia, Villanova University, and the African American Museum Fair Park in Dallas, TX, among others.
His artistry has been featured in several publications, including Mothers: A Loving Celebration (Courage Books) and I Am Your Strength (XLIBRIS US). He has also been featured twice in the International Review of African American Art.

With paintings held in private collections worldwide, R.L. Washington continues to make a profound impact on the art world through his evocative and celebrated work.

Duwenavue Sante Johnson is a BIPOC artist with a rich heritage spanning both the northern and southern regions of the United States over the past four centuries. This diverse upbringing has significantly shaped Johnson’s artistic lens, fostering a relentless quest for equilibrium, aesthetic allure, and steadiness within her masterpieces.

Possessing exceptional talent in hand embroidery and contemporary art, Johnson does not limit herself to any single medium. Instead, her artistic style is a beautiful tapestry woven from her extensive travels, absorbing a spectrum of hues, environmental motifs, and textures from every corner of the globe. Johnson ingeniously merges a variety of painting and textile methods, harmonizing the wisdom acquired from formal instruction with the cultural elements that have molded her character.

In her role as an educator and expert in needle arts, she dedicates her energy to the meticulous and elaborate details embedded in Heraldry. Johnson generously imparts her expertise on the symbolic foundational principles, design formulation, and stitching methods, while accentuating the importance of artisanship in her presentations. Johnson’s journey towards becoming an artist was fueled by her mixed-race heritage and the experience of seldom encountering individuals with similar backgrounds. This propelled her to seek avenues for forging connections with others through the medium of creativity.

Qiaira Riley is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, educator and cultural worker, from Chicago’s south-side, and based in Philadelphia. She holds a dual B.A. in Black Studies and Studio Art from Lake Forest College, as well as an M.F.A in Socially Engaged Studio Art from Moore College of Art and Design. She is a founding member of 2.0, a Philadelphia based collective that curates free, experimental offerings for Black femmes and women. Her 2021 self-published, MFA-thesis-turned zine “How Tiffany Pollard Built the Internet: Representations of Simulacra, Virtuality and Black Women and Femmes on the Internet and its Art” is a part of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection. She is the host of “Something You Can Feel”, a contemporary Black art history podcast. Her creative practice shifts between painting, ceramics, artist books, video, and alternative photography and transfer techniques. Her work explores and is influenced by Black archival practices; the visual language of Chicago’s south-side,cooking phenomenology; vernacular interiors; storytelling; familial artifacts and reality tv. Qiaira was the January 2024 Resident at Our House Culture Center, showcasing her debut solo exhibition Beauty of the Week, a series of works created as the 2023 Leeway Foundation X Fleisher Art Memorial Artist in Residence.She is currently the artist partner with the Friends of the Tanner House, supporting creative opportunities to envision the future of the historic Henry O. Tanner House in North Philadelphia.

Susan Ragland is a self-taught artist whose focus has been to unwaveringly create joyful images of Black people affirming their human connections. Amidst bursts of color and intricate designs, her paintings seek to examine the humanity of Black subjects while paradoxically depicting the ordinary: African Americans as regular folk, sans the presence of historical trauma. Her work aims to imbue majestic feelings in viewers who have experienced a questioning of their being and beckon others to identify universally-shared Joy.

She has had a 30-year career creating and selling art largely outside of the conventional art circuits. Through private exhibits and by word of mouth, her art has found its way into the permanent acquisitions of major art collectors throughout the U.S. including the Colored Girls’ Museum; a long-time host of ABC’s The View; professional athletes; George Washington University, Temple University; various on-air news pundits, and in the homes of regular folks.

Recent exhibits include the Woodmere Museum Annual 82nd Juried Exhibition; Montclair Art Museum’s Juneteenth Exhibit, and the Philadelphia Magic Gardens.

Michele Pierson (b. 1993) is a contemporary painter born and raised in Philadelphia, PA. Michele obtained her B.A. in Studio Art and Art History from Spelman College and has maintained an active studio practice alongside a fulfilling career in nonprofit arts fundraising.

Drawing inspiration from surrealist and metaphysical painting, Michele’s paintings fuse earthly and cosmic elements into surreal, metaphysical landscapes and portraits. Utilizing strategic color choices and symbolic motifs like stars and mirrors and windows, Michele invites viewers on introspective journeys, encouraging contemplation of fate, life’s interconnectedness, and the boundless expanses of existence.

“Embedded within my artistic philosophy is a belief in the transformative power of understanding our interconnected existence as a catalyst for resistance against oppressive systems. I posit that a rich comprehension of life’s interdependence serves as the bedrock for ethical behavior and compassion. Through the medium of painting, I extend an invitation to viewers—a call to engage in profound contemplation and unveil their individual relationships to the interconnected web that envelops us all.”

Kara Mshinda (b. 1978) is a visual anthropologist who creates photo-based artworks about identity, memory, and embodiment in public spaces. Mshinda is an alumna of Temple University (‘07) and is best known for using collage, collaborative portraiture, and alternative photo processes to document graffiti, children at play, candid social encounters, and the material culture of daily life. Mshinda is a Principal Collaborator of GrioXArts, a studio-based space at Cherry Street Pier that focuses on building community via process-based art education.

Alexsi Morales is a self taught multimedia artist currently based in West Philadelphia. Alexsi’s work is driven by their take on contemporary art, the beauty of life, the people around them, dealing with self-love in a constantly mediated space, and the multifaceted endeavor of connecting with each other. Representing the many faces of beauty is an intrinsic quality to their work: born and raised in New York City, showcasing the diversity and chaos of the world translates over into how he emulates fragmented figures and faces. They seeks to continue to showcase pieces on the subject of Afro-latinx identity, masculinity, sexuality, and queerness. With graphite, pen, pastels, oil paint and digital medium, Alexsi works on framing the images and faces they interact with and interpreting them in their own way. A blend of loose and gestural pencil work, sometimes combined with vibrant color, creates a dynamic mix of values. Playing between both abstraction and realism illustrates a freedom of choice and style that’s true to them.

Originally from the Dominican Republic, LUSMERLIN is a multidisciplinary artist and chemical engineer with a background in textile and cement manufacturing.  She currently splits her time between Philadelphia, PA and Columbia, MD and exhibits her work nationally. LUSMERLIN’s works across media share a thematic interest: womanhood, dance, the transformation of immigration, and the scenes of daily life that accompany her journey of re-discovery. LUSMERLIN’s approach to work borrows from Caribbean values, where it’s more important that a person “pops” in a room, rather than blend in.