Bio

April Sunami is a professional visual artist primarily focusing on mixed media painting and installation.  She earned her Master of Arts Degree in Art History from Ohio University and her Bachelor of Arts Degree from the Ohio State University. Sunami is also an award winning installation artist through the 2012 Columbus Art Pop-Up Project sponsored by the Greater Columbus Arts Council. Her work has been widely exhibited in galleries and museums including the Columbus Museum of Art, National African America Museum and Cultural Center and the Southern Ohio Museum. Her work is also represented in private collections throughout the country.

 

Artist Statement

For over a decade I have considered myself a cultural producer, contributing to the ongoing conversation of race, identity and representation through the creation of paintings that place black women front and center as the subject of my work. I deliberately create images of strong, spiritual, women of color as a means of proclaiming my personal identity and providing a different lens for the social perception of black women.  Many of my works are titled after West African queens and deities forgotten or ignored by Western historians. Through excavating these names, I feel I am remembering a marginalized past.

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For this exhibition, I plan to continue to build forward from my explorations of history towards creation of an ideal new future through the concept of Sankofa. Sankofa is both a symbol and expression in the Akan and Asante cultures which literally translates to “it is not taboo to go back and fetch what is at risk of being left behind.”