Crafting the Diaspora: A Black Queer Lens of Artisans and Communal Archiving
June 12-August 14, 2026
Crafting the Diaspora: A Black Queer Lens of Artisans and Communal Archiving spotlights four trailblazing artists whose creative practices carve futuristic and historic pathways of the African diaspora through craft as a world-bending device. In celebration of Juneteenth and Pride month, this exhibition commemorates the visionary work of these artists through their sculpture, glass works, ceramics, textile/fabric arts, and paintings.
Crafting the Diaspora runs from Friday June 12 through Friday August 14, 2026 and features the work of Asari Aibangbee, Nandi Mathews, Marie-Josè Njoku-Obi, Corey Pemberton. The exhibition is curated by Asari Aibangbee in collaboration with K. Bradford.
Craft within the African Diaspora serves as a bridge between ancestral history, community archiving, and revolutionary acts of resistance against oppression! Black queer and Trans artisans serve as griots that preserve history and pass down skills from generation to generation. The art, talents, and stories of Black queer and trans folks have uplifted and shaped craft as we know it today.
Inspired by the organization, Crafting the Future, this show highlights the significance of craft based art and its Black queer indigenous roots. Unfortunately, in the contemporary art world, Black and Brown craftmakers/artisans are still not significantly championed, supported, or seen as griots in the art world. And even within the craftworld, Black and Brown artists are not consistently or universally put to the forefront nor given opportunities to expand their practices due to racist and sexist nature industries. Crafting the Diaspora is meant to address these issues by way of exploring craft through the lived experiences of these 4 artists and their expansive talents and traditional and non-traditional ways of world bending and storytelling.
Gallery Showings
Crafting the Diaspora: Gallery HoursWed, Jul 15nina Atwater- Crafting the Diaspora: Gallery HoursSat, Jul 18nina Atwater
Exhibiting Artists
Asari Aibangbee
Asari Aibangbee is a multidisciplinary artist and curator whose work as a queer Nigerian femme centers the experiences of Black Queer individuals across the African diaspora. Through filmmaking, fine art, and curation, they explore profound themes of identity, community, and intersectionality, crafting narratives that challenge traditional frameworks and emphasize softness and vulnerability.
Born in Montreal and raised in Los Angeles, their artistic journey formally began in San Francisco, where they earned a dual degree in Africana Studies and Communication Studies from San Francisco State University (2020). It was during this time that they founded the vital collective To Be Black and Queer, establishing a platform for community and dialogue that continues to inform their practice.
Asari’s artistic development has been significantly shaped by key residencies and fellowships, including Crafting the Future, Real Time and Space, and Penland School of Craft. These experiences, alongside their work in film programs with A24 and the Academy Museum, have allowed them to deepen their material exploration. Their textile and fiber art, which began in 2021, blends traditional tufting and dyeing techniques with sustainable materials to create intricate works that explore symbols and cultural artifacts significant to the Black Queer community. Each piece serves as a tactile metaphor for broader conversations on belonging and the diasporic experience, offering a nuanced perspective on tenderness and resilience.
Nandi Mathews
Nandi is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice moves between sculpture, fashion, and performance art using clay, textiles, and images. Rooted in backgrounds spanning theatre, gardening and ceramics, they approach creativity as a process of cross-pollination - allowing materials, techniques, and curiosity to inform one another. Using texture, shape, and color as a visual language, Nandi explores how identity is molded through inherited histories, generational knowledge, and an evolving community - treating material as both archive and conversation.
Marie-Josè Njoku-Obi
Marie-Jose is a contemporary visual artist based in Inglewood, California. Born in San Francisco in 1992, Marie has been exploring the multiplicity of the Black femme experience through painting, collage, and mixed media including stained glass, tile mosaic, and textile arts over the last decade. They employ surrealism as a tool for re-imagining the past and inspiring a previously indiscernible future and cite Rene Magritte, Dorothea Tanning and Kerry James Marshall, as well as their own Nigerian heritage as significant influences. Concepts for the work originate from an exploration of self combined with uncanny allegorical imagery. Defining their style as ‘Afro-Surrealistic’, Marie’s work reexamines the pre-conceived barriers of Black liberation.
Marie-Jose has participated in numerous group exhibitions, art markets, and festivals nationwide. Their paintings were featured in the Affordable Art Fair in New York and Aqua Art Miami in Miami Beach in 2022. They have also shown their work at Brea Gallery in Brea, CA, and the Museum of Science + Industry in Chicago. In 2022, Marie-Jose was an Artist in Residence participant in Albuquerque, NM, and Fukuoka, Japan. They were a Destination Crenshaw Round 5 Mini Mural Awardee in 2023 and had their art featured in Skew Magazine and World of Interiors. They made their international debut with a two-person exhibition with Studio Kura in Itoshima, Japan in July 2022.
Corey Pemberton
Corey (American b. Reston, VA 1990) received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2012. He has completed residencies at The Pittsburgh Glass Center (PA), Bruket (Bodø, NO), Alfred University (NY), as well as a Core Fellowship at the Penland School of Crafts (NC). He has exhibited work at the Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art (CA), The Contemporary Museum of Art in Raleigh (NC), and has work in the permanent collections of The Museum of Art and Design (NY), The Boston Museum of Fine Art (MA), and The Chrysler Museum of Art (VA).
Pemberton currently resides in Los Angeles, California where he splits his time between the nonprofit arts organization Crafting the Future, painting, and his glass practice. He strives to bring together people of all backgrounds and identities, breaking down stereotypes and building bridges; not only through his work with Crafting The Future but with his personal artistic practice as well.