A selection of work by Philadelphia-based artist Zeinab Diomande. Using mixed-media, high-contrast colours and vibrating patterns, Diomande’s paintings explore themes related to her own personal experience as well as the Black experience at large through dream-like settings and the language of self-portraiture. For Diomande, the Black experience is ever-changing and ever-evolving, and her work is an attempt to reflect that reality:

“The backgrounds in my paintings are generally in motion while the figure is still. This is a pattern that I have had for a while in my work. What does it mean to feel stuck when everything around you is going at such a fast pace and constantly changing? The figure being still, represents this idea of going at one’s own pace but realizing that everything around them is going faster. It’s a hard realization and something that I struggle with in my daily life. The motionless figure evokes uncertainty while everything else surrounding them keeps going. You cannot fight time or go against it, it will always end up going at a faster pace.”

See more images from Zeinab Diomande below.