Ijania Cortez (b Detroit MI 1990) is a fine artist living and working in Detroit MI, USA. Her practice is centralized around painting but also includes murals as well as works of mixed media. She is known for the color she uses in her portraits as well as the subjects, almost exclusively depicting black men from the inner city. Influenced by a modest childhood in 90’s Detroit and her love for the residents there, her work serves to create conversations between painting and viewer. Cortez uses neon color to note the modern era, showing her subjects as natural and central in environments that are unnatural, a reflection of the man-made conditions of the city. Her work interrogates beauty and vulnerability in masculinity, as well as the ability to thrive and exist despite adversity. Her journey into professional art practice began with her debut show, A Summer Nativity, hosted at the Camillo Pardo Studio in Detroit. Through this exhibition she was introduced to Detroit’s vibrant art community, leading to apprenticeship opportunities with notable local artists and the subsequent launch of her adjacent mural practice.Cortez is an accomplished muralist, with works spanning multiple cities in Michigan, including Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Ann Arbor, where her mural graces the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at institutions such as the Cranbrook Art Museum, Detroit Artists Market, and the University of Michigan. Additionally, her murals have been showcased in major campaigns, including collaborations with Rockstar Energy, BET, and Milestone Comics.

Floyd Strickland is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work offers an introspective and critical exploration of American culture, viewed through the eyes of Black and brown children. Drawing

on his own childhood experiences, Strickland creates ethereal, figurative oil paintings that merge realistic figures with cultural imagery, evoking both tenderness and strength. Strickland's journey began while he was working on building and renovating elementary schools across the country, where he observed a troubling lack of confidence among many Black and brown children, and an insecurity that he deeply understood from his own upbringing. This realization led him to dedicate his practice to portraying these children as larger-than-life figures, celebrating their beauty, resilience, and boundless potential. His children often serve as central figures in his work, embodying the profound love and hope that drive his artistic vision. Strickland’s recent solo exhibitions include The Little Devil in America (2025), Higher Learning (2024), and Super Rich Kids (2023) at Thinkspace Projects in Los Angeles, as well as The World is Yours (2023) at Art Angels Gallery in Los Angeles. These exhibitions have further cemented his place as a distinct and powerful voice in contemporary figurative painting. Strickland lives and works in Los Angeles, where he continues to push the boundaries of narrative and representation in his art.

Kaylyn Webster was born in 1999 in Memphis, TN. She received her BFA in Studio Art (Painting Concentration) from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, as well as a minor in African and African American Studies. Webster has been shown in numerous exhibitions, including “I Got a Story to Tell” and “Bloom Where You Are" at Tanya Weddemire Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, and her solo exhibition, “Commune [verb]”, was on display at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, TN. She has participated in residencies at the Children’s Museum of Memphis, and at Crosstown Arts. Webster’s work has been written about in Artsy, Canvas Rebel, and The Daily Memphian. She was featured in Friend of the Artist: Volume 16 and has most recently been featured in New American Paintings: South #178. Webster currently lives and works in Memphis, TN.

O’NEIL SCOTT is a Philadelphia-based artist, born in Spanish Town, Jamaica whose practice is rooted in portraiture. Influenced early by his grandfather and uncle, both of whom pursued creative paths. Scott began drawing as a child, filling notebooks with characters both imagined and observed. Scott’s work is inspired by the Old Masters and contemporary realists alike. His transition from acrylic to oil paint marked a pivotal moment in his practice, allowing for greater depth, pliability, and exploration of complex narratives. Through his portraits, he engages with themes such as social justice, climate change, and subjects that speak to both personal truth and collective urgency. In 2025, Scott debuted his first solo museum large scale works exhibition at the Zillman Art Museum (University of Maine) in Bangor, Maine, a milestone that showcased the breadth of his evolving work and his commitment to storytelling through a Black diasporic lens. At the core of his paintings is a desire to invoke mindfulness, inspire contemplation, and foster deeper understanding of the human condition. Scott’s work has been featured at several prominent art fairs in the US and exhibited with notable galleries, and his paintings are part of esteemed corporate collections as well as private collections both in the U.S. and internationally.

Joshua Thaddeus Rainer was born in Detroit, Michigan February of 1996. Rainer began formal art education in 2012 under the tutelege of Todd Burroughs at the Birmingham Bloomeld Arts Center, where he would later teach from 2021 to 2025. Concurrently, Rainer studied fine art under Manal Kadry, Stephen Kade and Anita Bates at Henry Ford Academy: School for Creative Studies (HFA:SCS) from 2012 to 2014 before earning a BFA in Illustration at Detroit’s College for Creative Studies (CCS) in 2018. While at CCS, Rainer studied under and was greatly influenced by Gil Ashby, Robert Schefman and Francis Vallejo. Before beginning a ne art practice full-time near the end of 2020, Rainer joined the Detroit Fine Arts Breakfast Club (DFABC), nding community in the group's artists and arts advocates. A visual arts educator at Geffen Academy UCLA, Rainer obtained an MFA in Painting from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in May 2025. Since August 2025, Rainer has worked between his home and studio in Los Angeles, California.

Oscar Ukonu (b. 1993) is a Lagos-based visual artist with a background in architecture. His distinctive portraiture investigates the complexities of African identity through cultural, psychological, and sociopolitical lenses. Drawing on personal experience and historical references, Ukonu explores how contemporary identities are shaped by media, technology, and shifting cultural narratives.

He has been commissioned by major institutions like the UNICEF and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, for which he created the campaign art for the 2022 Oscars Awards. His work is held in significant collections in Nigeria and abroad, and he has exhibited in shows such as Insanity (Omenka Gallery, Lagos, 2016), Souls and Spirits (Voltz Clarke Gallery, New York, 2022), The Weight of Us (Corey Helford Gallery, Los Angeles).