Seattle Art Museum and arts organizations blackpuffin and Wa Na Wari are pleased to present Femme Noire, a public art exhibition taking place at various locations throughout the Central District from August 21 to September 30, 2023.
Femme Noire was initially inspired by former Senegalese president Léopold Sédar Senghor’s poem of the same name, written while he was imprisoned in Germany during World War II. In this poem, Senghor reflects on the beauty and power of Black women: his mother, daughter, wife, and all the women of his beloved home country, to which he longed to return. In Senghor’s writing, the Black women in his life were intrinsically connected to a hope for freedom, belonging, and community. Inspired by this vision, Femme Noire features the work of women artists from Africa and the African diaspora in an outdoor exhibition that externalizes and celebrates the power of Black women. Installed on lamp poles and at Black-owned businesses and arts organizations throughout the Central District, the project will bring the artists’ works into the community, creating a walking route through the heart of Seattle’s historically Black neighborhood. Using the immediate accessibility the street provides, Femme Noire creates an open public dialogue between the artworks and the community.
This project is the result of collaboration between the Seattle Art Museum and two innovative arts organizations, blackpuffin and Wa Na Wari. Based in Chicago, blackpuffin’s curatorial work brings artists from Africa and its diaspora to institutions around the world, creating environments where Black voices can thrive. Seattle’s own Wa Na Wari, sited in a fifth-generation Black-owned home in the Central District, is an immersive community art project that creates space for Black ownership, possibility, and belonging. Femme Noire is slated to begin mid-August and will culminate on Saturday, September 30 at Wa Na Wari’s Walk the Block, a one-day art festival that transforms the Central District into a walkable mix of outdoor galleries, stages, dance floors, and gathering spaces.
High-resolution images are available for editorial coverage by contacting pr@seattleartmuseum.org or the Seattle Art Museum Press Office at 206.654.3151.
FEMME NOIRE
FEMME NOIRE
Meet the team
Modou Dieng Yacine
Co-founder and curator of blackpuffin
Modou Dieng Yacine is a contemporary African visual artist based in Chicago, Illinois. Dieng Yacine has spent the last 20 years between the United States and his native city of Dakar, Senegal. In his mixed media works he combines painting and photography to create a dualistic positioning where both mediums are engaged and activated by one another. In doing so, he provokes what he calls “imaginative lines and multiplicities of layers which can be continuously applied to the surface”.
For Dieng Yacine the imagination of the painting itself often dictates the medium used in the work. Frequently incorporating materials such as denim, burlap, cardboard and wood frames, vinyl records, he is affirming both his African Identity and the contemporary lifestyle he finds himself in.
Larry Ossei-Mensah
Curator
Larry uses art as a forum to redefine how we see ourselves and the world around us. The Ghanaian-American curator has launched numerous exhibitions and programs featuring artists such as Firelei Baez, Steve McQueen, Catherine Opie, Nick Cave, Guadalupe Maravilla, Ebony G. Patterson, Judy Chicago, Stanley Whitney, and many more. As a global collaborator, Ossei-Mensah has worked with renowned venues around the world such as; The MCA Denver, Ben Brown Fine Arts in Hong Kong & London, the 7th Athen Biennale in Athens, Greece, (co-curated with OSMK Social Club), and MASS MoCA (co-curated with Susan Cross and Allison Janae Hamilton in 2018-2019). He’s been a partner on several Web3-related projects with creatives such as Derrick Adams x Jay-Z, Marco Brambilla, and Mikael Owunna.
Elisheba Johnson
Community Partner
Co-founder and curator, Wa Na Wari
Elisheba’s Johnson's vision for cultural placemaking drives our growth as a cultural institution. She served as public art manager for the city’s Office of Arts and Culture and founded and operated Faire Gallery and Café before becoming Wa Na Wari’s curator. Elisheba is a conceptual artist heavily influenced by the Fluxus movement and the accessibility of art experiences and objects. She sees art “taking the role of philosophy in the 21st century” and providing “the frame for discussing and solving our complex and important civic problems." Johnson, who has a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts, was the owner of Faire Gallery Café, a multi-use art space that held art exhibitions, music shows, poetry readings and creative gatherings. Between 2013 and 2019, Johnson was at the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture as public art project manager.
In 2018, Johnson started a public art practice with her collaborator Kristen Ramirez. They believe in creating opportunities that bring equity, accessibility, relevance, and engagement to a community, and they believe that every project ought to begin with meaningful engagement with the people who occupy the place, whether through questionnaires, story-telling, historical research, or celebration. Elisheba is currently a member of the Americans for the Arts Emerging Leaders Network advisory council and has won four Americans for the Arts Public Art Year in Review Awards for her work.
Camille G. Bacon
Guest Writer
Camille Gallogly Bacon is a Chicago-based writer who is cultivating a "sweet Black writing life" as informed by the words of poet Nikky Finney and the infinite wisdom of the Black feminist tradition more broadly. Through a methodology that straddles rigorous research and divinely derived oration, she aims to excavate how aesthetics can catalyze a collective reorientation towards relation, connection and intimacy and away from apathy and amnesia. Ultimately, her work serves as the external embodiment of her commitment to amplifying the wayward ingenuity of the Black creative spirit.
portrait by zakkiyyah najeebah dumas o'neal.
