NBAF and Arnika Dawkins Gallery host “A Conversation with Artists”, Ayana V. Jackson and Paul Stephen Benjamin.  NBAF’s Fine Art+Fashion 2017 Visual Artists Awardees.

Ayana V. Jackson is a critically acclaimed international artist whose work seeks to crystallize the experience of contemporary Africa and African diasporic societies.She combines honed technical skills with richly laced historical allusions to create hauntingly candid portraits that depict varying constructions of African and African-American identities. She does this through several photographic approaches ranging from reportage and portraiture to performance and studio based practice.

Paul Stephen Benjamin is a multidisciplinary artist. He received his BA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his MFA from Georgia State University. His work has been exhibited and collected nationally and internationally. Mr. Benjamin’s work brings the past, present and future together through use of the color black. The color black becomes an entry point into discussions of identity, race and masculinity.