Exhibition Opening

Tatiana Bell (she/any) is an Atlanta-born-and-raised artist and interaction designer whose work is informed by their queer mixed-race identity, the spaces we occupy, and the land that sustains us. She explores playfulness where it is lacking with a keen focus on neglected spaces and people, building meaningful and mystical experiences that encourage a sense of patient exploration, teaching lessons of hope and wonder to those who engage. Through giving new life to saved materials, they create environments that feel safe and accessible to all, honoring the self in relation to the surrounding world.

Masud Olufani is an Atlanta based multidisciplinary artist born in Los Angeles, California and raised in multiple cities including New York, Miami, New Orleans, Dallas, and Atlanta. He is an assistant professor of art and visiting arts fellow at Morehouse College and he also teaches at the United States Federal Prison in Atlanta, Georgia. The artist has exhibited his work nationally and internationally. He is a featured artist in the 2024 Dakar Biennale in Senegal. The artist has completed residencies at The Vermont Studio Center; The Hambidge Center for Arts and Sciences; and Tallier Portobello Norte in Panama. He is a 2018 Southern Arts Prize State Fellow; and a recipient of a 2015-16’ MOCA GA Working Artist Project Grant. The artist enjoys traveling, exercise, reading and long meandering conversations.

As an actor, he had a recurring role on the BET series The Quad, and has appeared in numerous television shows including Greenleaf; Being Mary Jane, Devious Maids, Satisfaction, and Nashville. He is a featured actor in the film biopic All Eyez on Me. He was the co-host of the PBS news based investigative journalism show Retroreport, which premiered nationally in the fall of 2019. He is the co-host of the podcast series Undaunted, which centers the work of social justice changemakers. He is the lead actor in No Cowards in Our Band about the life of Frederick Douglass, set to premiere at Hudson Valley Opera in Hudson Valley, New York in the fall of 2024.

As a writer, Masud has published articles for Burnaway; Baha’i Teachings; and is a featured contributor for the Jacob Lawrence Struggle Series catalog, produced to coincide with a major exhibition of the Struggle Series paintings. His forthcoming memoir is presently in production.

(Emma)nuelle Chammah is a sculptor and designer based in Atlanta, GA. She earned a Master of Architecture I from Tulane University in 2007. Her early wearable artworks were exhibited and performed in New Orleans, LA and Brooklyn, NY. In 2010, she completed a Digital Sculpture Residency at the School of Visual Arts in NYC, and went on to work in New York and California for agencies in architecture, art fabrication, theater and fashion. While building her art practice and working in the cultural arts, she developed expertise in creative placemaking and community art. Currently, Emma continues her radical use of fabric in many forms including wearables, tapestries and sculptures. She completed residencies at The Hambidge Center, GA and the Penland School of Craft in Penland, NC. Her work has been shown at the Oceanside Museum of Art, the Atlanta Contemporary, MINT Atlanta and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia. Forthcoming in 2022, her wearable pieces will be shown at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC for the “Coined in the South” exhibit and she will be preparing new work for a solo exhibition at MINT in Atlanta. She is currently an Artist-in-Residence in the Atlanta Contemporary’s Studio Artist Program.

Yehimi Cambrón is a DACAmented artist, activist, public speaker and entrepreneur born in San Antonio Villalongín, a small town in Michoacán, México. She became undocumented at seven years old when she immigrated to Atlanta, where she was raised. Cambrón’s work elevates the stories of immigrants, celebrates their humanity, and has a special focus on the experiences of Undocumented Americans. She has painted landmark murals in Atlanta that unapologetically assert the presence of immigrants, depict the intersectionality, diversity, and complexity of their stories, and challenge the white male-centered history of who is worthy of a public, monumental celebration. She is currently partnering with El Refugio to shed light on the stories of those who are being harmed by the Stewart Detention Center, a for-profit immigration detention center located in Lumpkin, Georgia. This public art project will educate and call the public to action to advocate for the closing of the immigration detention centers in Georgia.

Makiko is passionate about creating art and how it can connect people and flourish their sense of belonging. She believes the best part about connecting through art is sharing the joy of discovery and listening to the stories behind an artwork.

She has been connected with the art-making process ever since she can remember. It became an essential place for calm and happiness when she moved to the United States from Japan, where she experienced language and cultural barriers. Through that experience, she became dedicated to sharing the art-making process with the community, where it can be used to express, heal, have fun, and make connections.

Makiko believes kids have magical powers in creativity and imagination. She is originally from Japan and studied photography at MICA in Baltimore, MD then earned the Master of Arts in Creative and Innovative Education (MACIE) from GSU. As a child, she learned that art is a universal language that allows kids to express their power. She currently lives in Atlanta and creates art in mixed media, including photographic images.