By Megan Sayles
AFRO Staff Writer
msayles@afro.com
For generations, Black artists have played a critical role in documenting Black life—often filling gaps left by traditional historical institutions that overlooked or erased Black experiences.
Whether through visual art, music, performance or storytelling, their work can preserve personal and collective memory, presenting interpretations of history that are grounded in lived experience.
For Jerrell Gibbs, a painter from Baltimore, Black art does not merely accompany Black history, it defines it.
“Black artists have always been historians, even when we weren’t labeled as such. When official records ignore us or flatten our stories, art steps in to fill the gaps,” said Gibbs. “Through imagery, symbolism and storytelling, we document everyday life, joy, grief, resistance and survival. A painting can hold emotional truth in a way textbooks can’t. It captures how something felt, not just what happened.”
In his own work, Gibbs said he focuses on human moments—universal experiences, subtle expressions, quiet scenes and charged stillness. He paints Black men in moments of rest and reflection, often adorned with flowers, and draws from his family archive.
With his art, Gibbs intentionally counters dominant portrayals of Black men rooted in violence, trauma and pain.
“I’m interested in honoring Black people as full individuals, not just as symbols of struggle. I focus on capturing the real-life experiences that myself, my friends and family experience on a day to day,” said Gibbs. “My paintings act like visual archives, preserving not just events, but emotions, identity and presence.”
Sharayna Christmas, a Baltimore-based cultural worker, sees her art as a way to preserve memory, honor ancestors and connect the community to its history. With her nonprofit, Muse 360, she’s built an intergenerational incubator where young people and community members can come together to make art and explore historical books, artifacts and archives.
Through dance, film and multidisciplinary projects, Christmas draws on African spirituality, futurism and diasporic traditions to depict Black life and identity. For Christmas, Black art is inseparable from Black history.
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“Black art and Black culture are our immune system,” said Christmas. “When we don’t have it, we don’t know who we are. We lose ourselves.”
Christopher “kolpeace” Johnson, a multidisciplinary artist born in Columbia, S.C., draws on his Southern upbringing to document Black life through painting, performance and public art. He creates portraits, murals and live paintings that capture ordinary moments, family rituals and community life—using imagery like indigo, pine straw and animals to evoke safety, cultural memory and ancestral connection.
He emphasized that Black artists have long acted as historians, illustrating the nuances of daily life, culture and struggle.
“My goal is to reveal these stories to people who may have been oppressed, segregated or dealing with harsh realities in their own lives. My story is just one of many that can share that intimate value,” said Johnson. “My work creates that cultural connection that I was inspired by—from our predecessors who are Black, but who are also proud to be Black, and I’m very proud to be Black in the space that I make my work in.”
