2022-
Reunited
2022 Artists
Faisa Omer
Faisa Omer is a portrait photographer and videographer based in Edmonton and Ottawa, Canada. She spent time at the Algonquin College Photography Program in Ottawa where she learned the technical aspects of studio photography. Faisa's parents immigrated to Canada in the early 90s to escape the Somali Civil War. She uses photography as a tool to amplify voices to those in racialized communities.
Faisa's work has been recently exhibited at the Ottawa Art Gallery as well as the Alberta Art Gallery for the Sidewalk Cinema. She also enjoys fashion photography using black models in the form of family and friends in her dining room. When she is not taking photos, Faisa is employed as a Mental Health Counsellor for the RAJO Project; the Somali Youth and Family Empowerment Project in Edmonton. She is also the oldest of seven children and loves to spend her free time with family.
Website: faisaomer.com Instagram: @faisaomer_
Kyle Smith
Born in the north and raised under the Caribbean sun, Kyle has been drawing since he was four years old. What started with attempts of recreating Sunday comics and cars, drawing has always been a part of his life.
Having worked in advertising predominantly for nearly two decades, Kyle was fortunate enough to take the time to start InkFable Media. A company with a focus around freelance illustrative design, and digital illustration. You can find him at various comic convention artist alleys in North America, selling art prints while putting the finishing touches on his original Comic “Children of Rebel Gods”. He’s also the illustrator of an ongoing one page comic called “Dating While Black” in a magazine representing Afrocentric Culture in Canada.
Social media (insta/Twitter) @inkfable
Madi Leblanc
I am a self-taught artist utilizing drawing, dress-up, film, and painting.
Born in North Edmonton, Alberta in 1998, I am of Zulu and Acadian ancestry and the great-great-great-granddaughter of Mattie Mayes, one of the first Black Canadian settlers.
I primarily work with wax crayons on sheets. I like to work organically, creating in the spur of the moment. My most recent work features floral + fairy abstractions and surrealist compositions. It is important for me to make artwork that is visually and academically accessible. The materiality of my work speaks to this, as I primarily create using items found in thrift and dollar stores.
You can see my art journey on the gram at @makingmadi. Here I post live updates of work I’m creating! Or by all means on my website, Madelineleblanc.com
Reckie Lloyd
Reckie Lloyd is an oil painter who makes use of great attention to realistic and natural detail in his art pieces. The artist was born in Liberia, West Africa, a year before the prolonged Liberian Civil War began. Reckie became aware of his artistic interest at the early age of 4, he loved to draw and illustrate on the sandy grounds of his coastal city, Monrovia. Lloyd did not have the opportunity to attend art classes during his childhood and early teenage years since the civil war began to heighten. As a consequence of the devastation and suffering the war brought upon Liberians, Reckie’s family was forced to flee their country and leave their lives behind in order to seek refuge in Ghana where they lived for 6 years in a refugee camp fighting for an opportunity to start a new life abroad. Reckie and his family became Canadian residents in 2005 as they gathered strength needed for a new beginning.
Living in Edmonton, Canada, the artist enrolled himself in his very first art class; where he learned new techniques and expanded his passion for visual arts. As an art student, Lloyd was invited to display his artwork on his school’s wall at St. Joseph High School and went on to study art at MacEwan University. In 2013, Lloyd decided to pause his painting career in order to focus on another form of art which was his musical career as he launched Sangea Academy, a West African drumming and dance entity that shares the power of percussion with Canadians. The artist has always correlated his visual and musical artistic disciplines along with his culture as the public can admire the artist’s deep-rooted African identity in his artwork. During the Covid 19 Pandemic, the artist found himself painting for extended hours and rediscovered his love for fine arts, he was also able to refine his techniques and create from a mature perspective.
Instagram: reckielloyd
Facebook: Sangea Academy
Website: www.sangeaacademy.com
Marjorie Marshall
Marjorie Marshall graduated from the Academy of Merchandising and Design Chicago in 1999 with a B.F.A. in Fashion Design. Her interest in the art form quickly became apparent after completing all the millinery courses the academy offered. Creating her own independent study of the art of millinery was a labor of love. After graduation, Marjorie focused on pursuing a career in millinery. She has participated in a number of fashion shows throughout the Chicago area and neighboring states for charitable, social and civic organizations. Her one-of-a-kind millinery designs have been featured in numerous local newspapers (Time Out, the Chicago Sun Times and Tribune to name a few). Since moving to Edmonton in 2013 Marjorie has sold her hats at the Butterdome holiday event and participated in the Alberta Craft Council show titled, the Language of Craft in 2015
Marjorie relies on blocking (the act of shaping and molding a raw good on a wooden head form to produce a hat), and flat pattern making in order to produce new and unusual shapes. She has been known to block on unusual shapes found around her home to make hats. The trims she uses on her millinery range from small to large, and delicate to bold.
The philosophy behind her business is simple: fashion should be regarded as a form of art. The detail, imagination and skill that are involved in creating what we wear are ever changing and endless. A piece of straw or felt is manipulated and becomes transformed into wearable art.The head/face is an important focal point, it is part of the body that greets passerby’s and should always be just as dressed as the body.