SERIES
This section highlights works from ongoing series, some being held in private and institutional collections, to provide insight into the placement, stewardship, and ongoing life of my work. For museums, universities, and cultural organizations, these holdings reflect both a growing record of acquisition and an opportunity for future engagement through exhibitions, commissions, and collection development. As my practice continues to expand, these seriess serve as points of reference for institutions interested in acquiring work or building long term relationships that support the preservation and visibility of these narratives.
My work explores the intersections of generational memory, migration, collective culture, and Black identity. Through portraiture, symbolism, and the visual language of everyday life, I examine what we inherit, what we preserve, and how our histories continue to shape who we are. Each collection offers a distinct exploration of the people, places, and cultural practices that connect past and present.
NorthBound: What survives?
Northbound is a focused body of work that examines movement, transition, and the quiet negotiations of Black life across geographic and cultural boundaries. Through portraiture and material symbolism, the collection considers what is carried, what is left behind, and how identity is shaped in the act of moving forward. The works contribute to an ongoing exploration of history, labor, and self-definition within the broader practice.
As we approach the 250th year of the United States, the series asks a simple but urgent question: if you had to leave everything behind and carry only one thing forward, what would survive?
Signs of the Time
Signs of the Time is a series of oil paintings that pairs young Black boys with historically accurate public signage from the 1950s through the 1980s. Each work examines how systems of exclusion, surveillance, and controlled access were embedded into everyday environments, shaping early understandings of identity, belonging, and restriction. By placing children in direct dialogue with these markers, the collection underscores the quiet yet formative impact of these structures while contributing to a broader record of lived history within the practice.
The Weight We Wear
The Weight We Wear examines the physical, emotional, and cultural burdens carried by Black Americans, particularly those inherited through generations of labor, survival, and expectation. Through intimate portraiture, denim and workwear, and familiar objects drawn from Southern Black life, the collection explores how responsibility, sacrifice, and resilience become embedded in everyday identity. Clothing functions as both adornment and evidence, revealing the relationship between how we present ourselves and what we are expected to endure. The collection considers the quiet weight of being strong, the histories carried in ordinary gestures, and the distinction between what we inherit, what we are made to carry, and what we choose to keep.
If We had Wings
If We had Wings reimagines Black ancestors denied prominence in historical and artistic narratives. Drawing from Moorish and European Renaissance dress, the collection uses elaborate garments, rich textiles, and ornamentation to envision Black figures beyond historical representations of servitude, obscurity, and caricature. Birds symbolize freedom and transcendence, while eggs represent unrealized potential and the continuity of ancestral life. Through luminous dark skin and commanding portraiture, I imagine the portraits our ancestors might have commissioned and left behind had they possessed the freedom to define their own image and place in history.
For exhibitions or institution acquisitions, contact: afi.ese.art@gmail.com