Mixed media collage and photography convey my experience of being a Black man in America today. I use appropriated images from fashion, pop culture, interior design, and the legacy of iconic Black portraitists and photographers to inform my practice, touching on themes of masculinity, identity, race, family, and history. Found images are collaged and varnished, embellished with Swarovski crystals to embolden my subject matter (often myself, friends and family members) to new levels of luxury, social status, and hierarchy. I seek to subvert traditional preconceived notions about Black, immigrant families (like my own) to encourage audiences to question their own assumptions about race.
I expand on this practice by working in new communities outside my own, with a focus on portraiture, to shed light on people who have been forgotten by art history. My aim is to recontextualize communities into the canon of American art, uplifting them and their stories. This practice is a celebration of the vibrancy that is often overlooked in the Rust Belt and in disenfranchised groups.