Virginia Edition
Amir Khadar
Amir Khadar
is a Sierra Leonean-American artist, designer, and educator. Their main mediums are poetry, fibers, and digital art. They are experimenting and growing as an artist through establishing relationships to ways of making, but their practice has always been grounded through afro-futurism, gender theory, beauty, and ancestral practices.
Website: amirkhadar.com
Instagram: @amir.khadar
Deedee Cheriel
Deedee Cheriel
is a visual artist who started out creating record covers and T-shirts for the Oregon music scene in the early ‘90s. Cheriel’s work explores narratives that recognize the urgency and conflict in our continuing attempts to connect to the world. With influences derived from such opposites as East Indian temple imagery, punk rock, and her Pacific Northwest natural environment, her images are indications of how we try to connect ourselves to others and how these satirical and heroic efforts are episodes of compassion and discomfort.
Website: deedeecheriel.com
Instagram: @deedeecheriel
Haadia Khan
Haadia Khan
is a deaf Muslim artist who uses the brush to express feelings onto the texture of paper. Haadia believes that the world is a black and white film. With hearing aids, Haadia is able to experience many alternative opportunities not readily apparent to the hearing person. Through life experiences, Haadia sees the turmoils and conflicts that face people. This combination is something Haadia tries to express in art.
Website: etsy.com/shop/HaadiaKhnArt
Instagram: haadiakhnart
Kelly Tunstall
Kelly Tunstall
creates stylized portraits of mermaids, twins, and other creatures which desire to exist beyond the limitations of the medium of painting; a microcosm of the modern world at large; inhabited by people as they seem, where the paintings function as a mirror of our most fantastic selves, or as we exist in dreams. Tunstall frequently works in collaboration with her husband, Ferris Plock and is known as KEFE.
Website: kellytunstall.com
Instagram: @kellytunstall
Nico Cathcart
Nico Cathcart
is a painter and muralist hailing from Toronto, Ontario, and currently living in Richmond, Virginia. She strives to discuss Intersectionality and climate change in her highly-colorful realistic works which often include local flora and fauna. The artist is in the process of going deaf, relying on hearing aids and lip reading to communicate. She often includes birds in her work as a nod to her disability.
Website: nicocathcart.com
Instagram: @nicocathcart
Roshi K
Roshi K
is a multimedia artist that uses traditional art, digital media, and textile creations to share her mantra of “Live Life as Art” with the world. She’s motivated by her personal mission to inspire as many people as possible to embrace the ups & downs of being human, and harness that power to be authentic to yourself and create magic out of everyday life.
Website: cocoroshi.com
Instagram: @roshi_k
Sophiola, Sophia Pineda
Sophiola, Sophia Pineda
is a young woman with a passion for art, music, self-advocacy, and the people around her. Sophia also happens to have Down syndrome and at times struggled with her speech. Art captured her imagination and has become a way to express herself. She loves to experiment with color and shape through her drawings and Chinese watercolor painting. She brings an infectious sense of joy, humor, and exuberance to her art.
Website: sophiola.com
Instagram: @sososophiola
Chuck Sperry
Chuck Sperry
lives in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, where he’s made his particular style of rock poster designs for over 20 years. He operates Hangar 18, a silkscreen print studio. Sperry works in San Francisco, but exhibits internationally from Athens to Argentina, Bristol to Belgrade. By conducting workshops and lectures all over the planet, Sperry’s tutelage has inspired a new generation of rock poster and silkscreen artists worldwide.
Website: chucksperry.net
Instagram: @yosquirt
EVERGIB
EVERGIB
is the nomadic creative studio of Rachel Scott Everett and Brian Gibson. As graduates of the renowned VCU Brandcenter, they spent over 15 years working at ad agencies in New York and Los Angeles developing campaigns for national and global brands. Since 2016, the creative director duo has leveraged their expertise to raise awareness of, and advocate for, women’s rights and social equality. In 2020, they helped to develop and launch the VoteEqualityUS brand nationwide. Over the years, they have partnered with Women’s March and affiliated organizations, and have participated in countless marches to defend equal rights.
Website: evergib.com
Instagram: @evergib
Hamilton Glass
Hamilton Glass
was born in Philadelphia, where he spent many years absorbing the arts and culture of murals and street art. He created his first mural in Richmond in 2011, and since then has created more than 300. These murals live outside on public and private walls, and inside 60+ Richmond Public Schools. Using his background in architecture, he designs images that reference drafting practices, which are represented in the sharp lines, scale, and balance of the piece. The bright colors and unpredictable lines and shapes are used to convey energy and movement.
Website: whosham.com
Instagram: @hamglass
Mahari Chabwera
Mahari Chabwera
is a womanist, artist and curator reinforced by Black Women’s wisdom traditions. Mahari is also the Founding Director of Studio House, a communal live + work space for artists in East Baltimore. Mahari received The Visual Arts Center 2020 Emerging Artist Award and is the recipient of the 2019 - 2020 VMFA Professional Fellowship. Mahari currently works between Virginia and Maryland, developing her artistic and curatorial practices.
Website: maharichabwera.com
Instagram: @studiohousebaltimore
Noah Scalin
Noah Scalin
is an artist, author, activist and space pirate. He created the Webby Award winning Skull-A-Day project, the collaborative science fiction universe League of Space Pirates, and founded Another Limited Rebellion, an art & innovation consulting firm. Noah was the inaugural artist-in-residence at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business and his fine art has exhibited internationally, including installations in Times Square, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Mütter Museum.
Website: noahscalin.com
Instagram: @NoahScalin
Sam Skrimpz
Sam Skrimpz
is a trans non-binary Cajun artist, muralist and art educator, born and raised in south Louisiana. Their works are a reflection of their natural surroundings, often including birds and flora, done in bright colors and stylistically mystical to convey the intrinsic connection humans have to nature. After receiving an undergrad degree from LSU, they opened their LLC, FriedSkrimpz Studios in 2020.
Website: friedskrimpz.com
Instagram: @friedskrimpz
Studio Two Three
Studio Two Three
is a community arts space that offers studios, classes and workshops, artist residency, and open doors. They provide 24/7 access to printing presses, darkroom, digital lab, communal workspace, and individual studios to support art making for personal and social change. Studio Two Three supports the role of the arts in civic voice and engagement, partnering with activists and leaders to provide space for creative advocacy initiatives.
Website: studiotwothree.org
Instagram: @studiotwothree
Claudia “Claw Money” Gold
Claudia “Claw Money” Gold
is one of the most prolific public artists, with an unsanctioned art career since 1989. Gold's CLAW icon became a ubiquitous fixture of NYC's urban sprawl. Claudia now stands as a recognized artist, influencer, fashion editor, author and designer. She set precedents by being the first female artist to do collaborations with big-name companies such as Nike, Mountain Dew, NASCAR, Van's, and Calvin Klein.
Website: clawmoney.world
Instagram: @clawmoney
Faithe Norrell
Faithe Norrell
is a self-taught Richmond based artist who specializes in fine and wearable art. Her God-given gifts reveal themselves through the juxtaposition of vivid colors and a sense of balance and heavily applied texture. Faithe creates abstracts, cityscapes, florals, still life, multi-media collages, and exotically themed landscapes. Her human figures suggest the style of folk or cubist abstract artists.
Website: artbyfaithe.com
Instagram: @faithenorrell
Jess Walters
Jess Walters
(she/they) is an independent scholar, disability justice advocate, and emerging multimedia artist from Charlottesville. As a neurodivergent Deaf-Queer person who experiences the world in pictures, Jess has a profound love for playing with words, gestures, and symbols to articulate that which they find otherwise ineffable.
Website: jesswaltersart.com
Instagram: @art_by_jesswalters
Meme
Meme
is a graffiti artist and skateboarder and hails from Northern California. Whilst skateboarding, she fell in love with some colorful graffiti on a freight train. After many years of being a graffiti writer, MEME experienced the same type of “man’s club” attitude that she had found in skateboarding. Motivated to start something positive that would combine all of her passions, MEME began to turn the negatives into positives. She created an all-female group, Few and Far, who would get together, skate, paint, travel, empower and support one another.
Website: fewandfarwomen.com
Instagram: @memersweets
Pete Morelewicz
Pete Morelewicz
is a Fredericksburg-based artist and graphic designer. He works with a wide range of technologies, from 15th century letterpress to 21st century media (he himself dates to the 20th century). His digital art is marked by strong structural geometries, crisp lighting, and evocative compositions.
Website: printjazz.com
Instagram: @printjazz
Shepard Fairey
Shepard Fairey
is a renowned graphic artist known for his work on the images of Andre the Giant and the word obey. He has painted more than 110 large scale murals across six continents. Fairey’s work includes the 2008 "Hope" portrait of Barack Obama and the 2017 "We The People" series, which was recognizable during the Women's Marches and other rallies in defense of national and global social justice issues.
Website: obeygiant.com
Instagram: @obeygiant
Tara McPherson
Tara McPherson
is an artist based in New York. Creating art about people and their odd ways, her characters seem to exude an idealized innocence with a glimpse of hard earned wisdom in their eyes. Her portraits explore the realms of our psychological states, inspired by myths, legends, astronomy, physics, nature, love, loss, childhood, and life experiences. Tara exhibits her paintings and serigraphs in fine art galleries all over the world.
Website: taramcpherson.com
Instagram: @taramcpherson
CrudCity, Chase Beasley
CrudCity, Chase Beasley
is a working artist from Richmond, Va focusing on printmaking, murals and graphic design.
Instagram: @crudcity_
Ferris Plock
Ferris Plock
brings a dedicated focus to his work, paired with a wild sense of originality and morphing patterns, which combines contemporary pop culture with the aesthetic of Japanese ukiyo-e woodblocks. Plock co-curates the ongoing “BONKERS\Parallel Worlds” international exhibition series with Yoshi 47, featuring a select group of Japanese and American artists held in Tokyo, Japan. Plock works in collaboration with his wife, Kelly Tunstall and is known as KEFE.
Website: kefeinc.com/ferris-plock
Instagram: @ferrisplock
Jowarnise
Jowarnise
blends classical figure painting techniques with graphic design experience to create bold, colorful works primarily with acrylic. She utilizes the female form to explore the human condition as it relates to race, social class, femininity, and culture. She has exhibited work in galleries and museums, including the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, the Poe Museum, the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, and the Hermitage Museum and Gardens. Her art is in private collections and the VCU Health Arts in Healthcare permanent collection.
Website: jowarnise.com
Instagram: @jowarnise
Michael-Birch Pierce
Michael-Birch Pierce
is a fiber artist and fashion designer. They received a B.F.A. in fashion design from VCU where they now teach Fashion Design and Arts Foundation. They also studied at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Pierce has interned for Diane von Furstenberg, embroidered Christmas decorations for the Obama White House, and designed an exclusive collection for Levi’s.
Website: michaelbirchpierce.com
Instagram: @michaelbirch
Rachel Welsh de Iga
Rachel Welsh de Iga
is a professional Multimedia/Instructional Designer and homeschooling mom residing in Powhatan, VA. She graduated with a BFA in graphic design from WVU and has many post-undergrad degree hours in Advertising and Educational Technology. Being a life-long fine artist has served as the backbone to her 25+ years of experience in art-activism (including design for ERA campaigns), art direction, multimedia design, instructional design, and education.
Website: linkedin.com/in/rachel-welsh-de-iga-2b4a294
Instagram: @deigadesign
Silly Genius
Silly Genius
is a Richmond based artist, honing his skills in illustration, design, and painting since childhood. His work is an amalgamation of his influences: graffiti, Kung Fu flicks, sci-fi movies, comics, and Anime. Currently, Silly Genius works alongside fellow artists & friends as the collective All City Art Club, using street art to beautify communities around Richmond.
Website: silly-genius.com
Instagram: @sillygenius
Tracie Ching
Tracie Ching
is an artist and self-taught illustrator. Her work translates classic engraving techniques through vector illustration, resulting in the bold cross-hatching style for which she is known. Her portfolio includes Disney, Lionsgate, and Marvel Studios, official portraits for a President and Vice President, editorial illustration, and commercial art. Ching’s work is in the permanent collection of The Library of Congress. Ching is founder of the We Create Mentorship & Grant program.
Website: tracieching.com
Instagram: @tracieching
