Portraits of Yemaya Series Photograph

I am an artist/scholar/educator and native of Colon, Panama. My art and scholarly practices are informed by the ethnographic research I conduct in the African Diaspora. My research interest is the presence of African spiritual and aesthetic retentions, rediscoveries and reinventions in America grounded in the concept of transculturation. My findings are manifested in works of art, scholarly essays and lectures. At age 12 my family migrated to the United States and we settled in Brooklyn, NY. I began my art career in the theater, acting and directing in avant-garde street productions in New York City and New England. In graduate school I met my mentor, the anthropologist Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, President Emeritus of Spelman College and Director Emeritus of the National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C. Cole encouraged me to think about the contemporary art of the African Diaspora from the point of view of an ethnographer. While pursuing a doctorate degree in contemporary art theory and practice at NYU, I became interested in the aesthetics of Santeria. I have exhibited in over 30 solo and 80 group exhibitions. I have also produced more than 40 art projects in national and international museums, galleries and outdoor venues. I have authored 20 scholarly articles and essays on the art and aesthetics of the African Diaspora, and I am the editor of Santeria Aesthetics in Contemporary Latin American Art, a pioneering text that explores the legacy of the Yoruba aesthetic from antiquity to contemporary art theory and practice. In 1993 I co-founded Taller Portobelo, an artist cooperative dedicated to preserving Congo traditions. I also founded the Spelman Art Colony to provide artists from the US and Panama an opportunity to create art in the rainforest of Portobelo. In 2012 I was one of 15 artists selected nationwide to participate in smARTpower, a cultural diplomacy project initiated by the U.S. Department of State and administered by the Bronx Museum of the Arts. I was assigned to Cairo, Egypt. In 2015, after 25 years of teaching and directing the Department of Art and Art History, I was named Professor Emeritus at Spelman College and retired. I currently live in Atlanta, GA where I am working on "Arte Congo, artists’ journey on the Congo Coast of Panama," a documentary film on the art and aesthetics of Taller Portobelo.