21 Fascinating Pieces of Visual Art By Black Women

Powerful. Fascinating. Beautiful. These words describe both the art and artists behind them. Check out these pieces created from a black woman’s point of view.

Lina Viktor

The artist with the golden touch. Lina Viktor’s preferred choice of medium is 24‐Karat gold. The color palette of blue, gold, black and white can be seen throughout her work. Viktor is New York‐based but hails from London.

Lakwena Maciver

Lakwena Maciver is a London‐based mixed media artist who has exhibited her art on a grand scale. From street installations to galleries, Lakwena uses kaleidoscopic colors to bring about a refreshing aesthetic.

Michelle Robinson

Michelle Robinson is a self‐taught artist residing in Los Angeles, California. Robinson works with bold colors and patterns to enrich and celebrate the female form.

LlanaKila

Victoria Brown is the artist behind Llanakila. On Brown’s website, she notes her art as a representation of the essence of Blackness in this millennium through acrylic and digital paintings. “I am inspired by skin, eyes, mind, hair, male and female energies, emotions, love, sadness, protesting injustice, the powers of nature, the evolving world, and the Universe,” says Brown.

Nakeya Brown

Nakeya Brown has got folks talking over the past year with her works “Hair Stories Untold” and “The Refutation of Good Hair.” Browns work takes an introspective of the history of black hair and even the attitudes towards the hair industry of today.

Brianna McCarthy

Briana McCarthy is a self‐taught mixed media artist that hails from Trinidad & Tobago. According to her website, McCarthy’s focus “aims to create a new discourse examining issues of beauty, stereotypes, representation as well as the documenting the process – particularly poignant in an ever smaller digitally connected world.”

Monchi

Monchi is the work of London‐based artist Nyanza D. The Monchi pieces highlight women of color in a way that no one has done within the traditional pop art format.

Sharlene Perkins

Sharlene Perkins is a Los Angeles‐based painter and illustrator. Perkins’ “Music is my Sanctuary” series married jazz musicians with musicians of different genres. Think Grace Jones meets Josephine Baker or Fela Kuti meets Nat King Cole.

Ojo Agi

Ojo Agi is a Nigerian‐Canadian visual artist. Agi’s piece “For Sad Girls and Lonely Boys” explores rich textures and tones chooses to explore the sensitive side of people of color that is often not acknowledged by mainstream society.

Nina Chanel Abney

The Chicago‐born artist Nina Chanel Abney paintings often serve as commentary on both pop culture and sociopolitical issues. Abney was featured as one of Forbes Top 30 Under 30 artists to watch.

Are there any black female visual artists you’ve been admiring?