Engaging children with artists who look like them, have similar experiences, and come from similar backgrounds is a great source of inspiration and empowerment. By reflecting their own identities, experiences and motivations (mirrors) and also providing insight into the identities, experiences and motivations of others (windows) can move students toward more nuanced perceptions of the world around them (sliding glass doors).* Discover new BIPOC artists to add to your curriculum.
*Source: By Rudine Sims Bishop, The Ohio State University. "Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors"
Mixed Media
Artists have many layered identities and art educators need to present them as such.
Representing diverse artists in your curriculum is only part of an Anti-Bias, Anti-Racist curriculum. It needs to be more than a symbolic effort and art educators need to take into account intersectionality when introducing these artists to students. How do aspects of an artists’ social and political identities (ex. gender, sex, race, class, sexuality, religion, ability, physical appearance, etc.) intersect within their work?
In addition, we recognize that race is socially constructed and it is impossible to put humans in clearly defined categories by race. Racial identity is deeply personal, and artists within any given subgroup define themselves differently. Race, ethnicity, and nationality are all factors artist's individually consider as their personal identity. However, as mentioned previously that is not all that there is to their identity. We know that artists have many layered identities and art educators need to do the research to present them as such.
For the purpose of accessibility, we have attempted to organize artists into 8 subgroups: Asian, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Middle Eastern/North African, Multiracial/Multiethnic, Pacific Islander/SE Asian, and South Asian. Our goal is to use present artists based on how each artist defines themselves in relation to their work. These groupings are not perfect, as humans are not meant to be divided into boxes. We hope this resource can help art educators identify who is missing from their curriculum in order to create a curriculum more representative of the incredible diversity among students and artists today.
A
Adia Millett
American (Black)
Andrea Chung
American (Jamaican-Chinese & Trinidad)
Angel Otero
Puerto Rican (Latinx)
Arturo Herrera
Venezuelan (Latinx)
Aung Myint
Burmese (South Asian)
Aye Ko
Burmese (South Asian)
Ayesha Khalid
Pakistani (South Asian)
Askari Mian Irani
Pakistani (South Asian)
Alex Janvier
Cold Lake (Indigenous)
Antuco Chicaiza
Ecuadorian (Latinx)
Athena LaTocha
Hunkpapa Lakota (Indigenous)
B
Benny Andrews
American
Bisa Butler
American (Black)
Broobs
Chicanx (Indigenous)
C
Carlos Mercado
Puerto Rican (Latinx)
Ciara LeRoy
American (Black)
Chen Yufan
Chinese (Asian)
Chen Yujun
Chinese (Asian)
Cheryll Leo-Gwin
Chinese American (Asian)
Chu Wei-Bor
Chinese (Asian)
D
Danh Võ
Danish Vietnamese (Asian)
Deborah Roberts
American (Black)
Delita Martin
American (Black)
Derek Fordjour
American (Black)
Dex Fernandez
Filipino (Asian)
Dinh Q. Lê
Vietnamese American (Asian American)
E
Ebony G. Patterson
Jamaican (Latinx)
Ekua Holmes
American (Black)
Emory Douglas
American (Black)
El Anatsui
Ghanaian (Black)
Elia Alba
Dominican American (Latinx)
Elias Sime
Ethiopian
F
FX Harsono
Indonesian (Asian)
Flo Oy Wong
Chinese-American
Felix Quintana
Salvadoran-American
G
Gabriel García Román
Mexican-Amaricón (Latinx)
Gayle Tanaka
Japanese American (Asian)
Gina Adams
Ojibwe, Lakota Irish, & Lithuanian (Multiethnic)
Gina Gwen Palacios
Mexican American (Latinx)
Gordon Walters
Māori (Indigenous Pacific Islander)
H
Hanaa Malallah
Iraqi (Middle Eastern)
Hang Chunhui
Chinese (Asian)
Haraguchi Noriyuki
Japanese (Asian)
Hari & Deepti
Indian (South Asian)
Howardena Pindell
American (Black)
Htein Lin
Burmese (South Asian)
Hung Liu
Chinese-Born American
I
Izziyana Suhaimi
Singaporean
J
Jack Whitten
American (Black)
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Haitian/Puerto Rican (Multiethnic)
Jiang Ji’an
Chinese (Asian)
Jibade-Khalil Huffman
American (Black)
Jitish Kallat
Indian (South Asian)
John Clang
Singaporean (Asian)
Juan Carlos Escobedo
Mexican-American (Latinx)
Juan Downey
Chilean-American
(Latinx)
Juan Sánchez
Puerto Rican (Latinx)
Juliana Kang Robinson
Korean (Asian)
K
Kara Walker
American (Black)
Kawayan de Guia
Filipino (Asian)
Kay Brown
American (Black)
Kaya Joan
Afro-Indigenous (Vincentian, Kanien'kehá:ka with relations from Kahnawá:ke, Irish, Jamaican)
Kenyatta AC Hinkle
American (Black)
Kesha Bruce
American (Black)
Kim Gullion Stewart
Métis (Indigenous)
Kori Newkirk
American (Black)
Kulsum Tasnif
Pakistani-American (South East Asian)
L
Larry Fuente
American (Latinx)
Lavaughan Jenkins American (Black)
Lexx
Xicana (Latinx)
Lina Iris Viktor
British-Liberian (Black)
Luo Kai
Chinese (Asian)
M
Marcus Amerman
Choctaw (Indigenous)
Marcus Cadman
Navajo and Kickapoo (Indigenous)
Maile Andrade
Hawaiian (Pacific Islander)
Mark Bradford
American (Black)
Maria Amalia
Honduran (Latinx)
María Magdalena Campos-Pons
Cuban (Latinx)
MATA RUDA (Karl Miller Espinosa)
Latin-American
Mer Young Hidalgo Otomi Mescalero-Chiricahua Apache (Indigenous)
Mina Cheon
Korean American (Asian)
Moe Brooker
American (Black)
Molly Murphy-Adams
Lakota (Indigenous)
Musah Swallah
Ghanaian (Black)
Munkhtsetseg Jalkhaajav (Mugi) Mongolian (Asian)
Mildred Howard
American (Black)
N
Nandin Erdene Budzagd
Mongolian (Asian)
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Nigerian American (Black)
Natalie Ball
Klamath, Modoc, & African American (Black)
O
P
Paratene Matchitt
New Zealander (Māori) (Indigenous Pacific Islander)
Patrick Martinez
(Latinx)
Peter Robinson
New Zealander (Māori) (Indigenous Pacific Islander)
Q
R
Rashid Johnson
American (Black)
Red Hong Yi
Chinese-Malaysian (Asian)
Rodríguez Calero
Puerto Rican (Latinx)
Romare Bearden
American
Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze
Nigerian-British (Black)
S
Scherezade García
Dominican (Latinx)
Shang Yang
Chinese (Asian)
Sheida Soleimani
Iranian-American
Sekine Nobuo
Japanese (Asian
Sonya Kelliher -Combs
Athabaskan (Indigenous)
Sanaz Mazinani
Iranian-Canadian
T
Tawny Chatmon
American (Black)
Tiffany Chung
Vietnamese American (Asian American)
Thornton Dial
African-American (Black)
Torkwase Dyson
American (Black)
Tyree Guyton
American (Black)
U
V
Vashti Harrison
American (Black)
Vanessa German
American (Black)
Vick Quezada
Mexican American
Victoria Villasana
Mexican (Latinx)
Vik Muniz
Brazilian (Latinx)
Vishal Jugdeo
Indo-Guyanese descent (Multiracial)
W
Wang Tiande
Chinese (Asian)
Wangechi Mutu
Kenyan (Black)
Wooden Wave (Team)
Hawaiian (Pacific Islander)
X
Xochi Solis
Mexican American (Latinx)
Y
Yasmine Diaz
American-Yemeni (Middle Eastern)
YING Tianqi
Chinese (Asian)
Yvette Mayorga
Mexican American (Latinx)
Z
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Asian: a native or inhabitant of Asia, or a person of Asian descent.
BIPOC: Black, Indigenous and People of Color.
Black: of or relating to any of various population groups having dark pigmentation of the skin or ancestry originating in Africa.
Ethnicity: a group of people who identify with one another with similarities such as history, culture, language, ancestry, etc.
Indigenous: ethnic groups who are the original or earliest known inhabitants of an area, in contrast to groups that have settled, occupied or colonized the area more recently.
LatinX: a person of Latin origin or descent.
Middle Eastern: a person of Middle Eastern origin or descent.
Multiethnic: of two or more ethnicities.
Multiracial: of two or more races.
Nationality: the status of belonging to a particular nation.
North African: Peoples with origins based in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, Western Sahara belonging to a particular nation.
Pacific Islander, or Pasifika, are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. It is a geographic and ethnic/racial term to describe the inhabitants and diaspora of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania. It is not used to describe non-indigenous inhabitants of the Pacific islands.
Person of color: a person who is not white or of European parentage.
Race: a group of people who share cultural elements such as language, history, etc.
South Asian: a person of origin or descent from Southern Asia.
South East Asian: a person of origin or descent from the South Eastern part of Asia