Artist Rountable and experimental praxis

About Ernest Shaw

Artist Ernest Shaw, Jr. was born and has spent the majority of his life in Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Shaw hails from a family involved in visual and performing arts. Growing up in West Baltimore, I was consistently exposed to a range of influences and sources of inspiration. Mr. Shaw sincerely values the support and encouragement provided by his parents, particularly acknowledging the challenges inherent in nurturing a child artist. His work explores the duality of the African American experience, portrayed through a diverse range of media and concepts. The most prominent feature of his art is his sophisticated use of color and the depiction of figures. The figures in his artwork pay homage to a longstanding tradition of African and African American figurative art. Additionally, his mastery of color reflects a profound understanding of rhythm, which he acquired from several West African drum instructors.  

Ernest is a product of Baltimore City Public Schools.

He is a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Art from Morgan State University and obtained his graduate degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C. Mr. Shaw is currently employed as a teacher in Baltimore City and serves as an adjunct professor at Coppin State University.

About Ada Pinkston

Ada Pinkston is a multimedia artist, educator, community artist, and cultural organizer living and working in Baltimore, Maryland. Her work lives in the liminal space between history and the body, the archive and the flesh. She is a multimedia artist, an educator, and a cultural archivist investigating the erasures and mythologies surrounding Black life, memory, and public space. Through performance, digital media, printmaking, and sculpture, she creates speculative monuments and counter-narratives that ask: who is remembered, who is forgotten, and what tools do we use to build a more truthful collective memory? Her performance work has been featured at a variety of spaces including The Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Walters Art Museum, The Peale Museum, Transmodern Performance Festival, P.S.1, The New Museum, Light City Baltimore and the streets of Berlin, Baltimore, Orlando, Washington DC, and New York. A graduate of Wesleyan University (B.A.) and Maryland Institute College of Art (M.F.A.) She currently is a lecturer in art education at Towson University. She has presented public lectures on memory and public space at The French Embassy, NYU, UCLA, USC, Columbia University, and The National Gallery of Art. Her work has been supported by The Yaddo Artist Residency and McDowell Colony. Her work can be found in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Spelman Museum and the augmented reality sculpture garden at Magic Johnson Park in South Central Los Angeles. Limited editions of her most recent work can be found at The Mimosa House London. In 2023, she was appointed as a member of the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture under the leadership of Governor Wes Moore.

About Lehna Huia

Drawing inspiration from Caribbean oral histories and dream landscapes, I transform material into visual meditations that evoke a sense of mysticism and wonder. My work is an ongoing exploration of memory, lineage, and the stories that shape us. Concentrated on tracing non-linear time and ritual, my compositions combine paint, textile scraps, paper, beads, shells, plant matter, and everyday objects to honor and personify the land and waters surrounding my roots. 

Lehna has participated in solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally at select institutions and galleries such as National Gallery of Jamaica, ACRE Projects in Chicago,Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art in NY, Museum of Contemporary Art in Arlington, VA, Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn, NY, Creative Alliance in Baltimore, Rush Arts in Philadelphia, PA, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Quartair Contemporary Gallery in the Netherlands and The Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art in NY. 

Lehna has been featured in international exhibitions in Thailand, Italy, Jamaica and Germany. Huie received her MFA at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) 21’ where she studied in Mount Royal’s Interdisciplinary Arts Program and at the Hoffberger School of Painting. Lehna has participated in prestigious residencies including the Wassaic,  Ma’s House, Joan Mitchell Center, Stoneleaf Retreat, ACRE, Chautauqua School of Art, Bandung Residency, Elsewhere Studios, Flux Factory, and Snug Harbor.

Lehna was named an Artist Changemaker with Global Fund for Women and has received multiple awards including the Space for Creative Black Imagination Makers & Research Fellowship and two Puffin Foundation grants. Trained through the Joan Mitchell Foundation, her practice includes work as a Legacy Specialist preserving intergenerational artists archives and oral histories.