Issue 4: Spotlight

The artwork featured in this issue seek to complicate conventional representations of Black femininity and masculinity. These two very different pieces of art from Brazil and the United States showcase the multidimensionality of identity and expression – from the streets of São Paulo to the otherworld.

Entrance to the Garden (2021)

M. Florine Démosthène

Using a mixture of mylar, ink, pigment, and glitter, M. Florine creates depictions of voluptuous bodies that appear weightless-floating, as if transcending some higher plane. See more here

Using xylograph techniques, Ederson Pereira dos Santos conveys the contemporary aesthetics, humanity, and strength of Black Brazilian men and challenges conventional notions of masculinity. See more here

Issue 3: Hindsight

In our visual exploration of the contours of Planetary Blackness, the art in this issue takes us on a journey through grief, admiration and self-discovery. These contributions to our ongoing meditation of the ambit of Black humanness prompt us to look back so that we may look ahead.

ABSENTIA (2019)

kyle malanda

In this digital collage about grief, Malawian photographer, kyle malanda, explores social media as an archive of life. See more here.

Adventurer (2019)

Ismail Odetola

Nigerian photographer Ismail Odetola draws attention to the richness and complexity of Ewe culture in west Africa. See more here.

Isiqhaza saseGiyane (2020)

Sandile Radebe

Using spray paint on pine, South African sculptor Sandile Radebe puts Zulu identity in conversation with changing times. See more here.

Issue 2: Insight

Four artists—Blaine D. Teamer, Siyolisi Bani, REWA, and Lorryn Moore—open us up the contours of diasporic Blackness as they respectively reflect on transatlantic spiritual legacies, mental health challenges, complicated social relationships, and Afropolitan aesthetics.

I am Orisha (2021)

Blaine D. Teamer

In this digital collage, Blaine D. Teamer of the United States invites us into the spiritual legacies of the transatlantic slave trade by drawing attention to Ara, the goddess of style, the maintainer of individuality and self-expression. See more here.

Finding Comfort in Darkness (2021)

Siyolisi Bani

South African photographer Siyolisi Bani seeks to capture truth and spirit in each shot. He brings us to the intersection of darkness and light in people. Deliberately conveying visual sorrow, Bani’s work, focuses on Black men’s experiences with depression. See more here.

baby oku (2021)

REWA

Positioned between the rich Igbo heritage and the emerging Afropolitan tradition, Nigerian REWA seeks to present characters that are uninhibited and self-aware. baby oku’s unapologetic demeanour captures the journey that departs from that of her female forebearers. See more here.

Supper (2020)

Lorryn Moore

Inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci's “The Last Supper,” United States-based Lorryn Moore’s work represents community and gratitude, while surfacing complicated relationships. In this collage, she deploys physical darkness as a motif for cultural Blackness and soul searching. See more here.

Issue 1: Foresight

Art in this issue illuminates aspects of Planetary Blackness, in pursuit of unexposed dimensions and untold stories. To explore the full ambit of Black humanness, the art attempts to illustrate the threads and disjunctures of our varied experiences and to convey the essence and electricity of the current moment.

Art