Art World by Destinee Ross Sutton

Rita Mawuena Benissan “We Reign in Crimson”, 2024, Embroidery on velvet
134.6 x 134.6 cm / 53 x 53in

Inspired by the legacy of Aaron Douglas and the Harlem Renaissance, “We Reign in Crimson”—weaves together identity, history, and symbolism through richly layered tapestries. Her use of undefined figures invites viewers to see themselves reflected, while deep crimson tones evoke royalty, sacrifice, and spiritual power. Drawing from centuries-old pigment histories, her work connects past and present, grounding celestial themes of love, resilience, and belonging in a contemporary visual language.

Marking the 6yr anniversary of the groundbreaking exhibition, Destinee Ross-Sutton .knee and Ross-Sutton Gallery is proud to present

Born in Abidjan to Ghanaian parents, is a multidisciplinary artist whose work bridges heritage, identity, and contemporary culture. She blends textile, photography, and installation to explore Ghanaian traditions and narratives of power and belonging.

Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, Dak’Art Biennale, and Gallery 1957 in Accra, with a landmark solo museum exhibition at Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town—where she became the youngest artist and first woman to receive a major atrium commission. Through her foundation Si Hene and curatorial work, Benissan continues to shape global conversations around cultural preservation and representation.

Rugiyatou Ylva Jallow “Stillheten Som Bär Mig”, (The Stillness That Carries Me), 2025
Acrylic, oil and thread on canvas
10 × 8 in / 25.4 × 20.3 cm

“She gazes into an unseen depth with a sense of calm; her expression held between presence and introspection. A flower rests in her hair, holding the face of an ancestor, an intimate reminder that she is not alone.” -

Marking the 6yr anniversary of the groundbreaking exhibition, Destinee Ross-Sutton .knee and Ross-Sutton Gallery is proud to present on view at the Stockholm gallery this weekend, next week Tuesday & Wednesday and for the summer by appointment

Rugiyatou Ylva Jallow is a multidisciplinary Gambian-Swedish artist based in Los Angeles, whose work explores identity, race, and belonging through powerful visual storytelling. Blending sculpture, text, and installation, she challenges societal narratives while centering Black experiences in Sweden and beyond. Her art is both deeply personal and politically resonant, inviting reflection, dialogue, and change.

(Last image the evening sun in the gallery touching the painting.)

.nobakada
“The debriefing chamber”, 2026
Acrylic paint on Venetian lace
125 x 91 cm / 49.22 x 35.83 in

Buqaqawuli Nobakada
“Tea in the backyard”, 2026
137 x 80 cm / 53.9 x 31.5 in
Acrylic paint on hand prepared lace

Marking the 6yr anniversary of the groundbreaking exhibition, Destinee Ross-Sutton .knee and Ross-Sutton Gallery is proud to present

Buqaqawuli Thamani Nobakada (b. 2000) is a South African mixed-media artist exploring Black femininity, intimacy, and self-determination. Working with acrylic, lace, and sculptural elements, she creates intricate installations that center soft, non-sexual moments of Black women’s lives.
Her work celebrates beauty, vulnerability, and opulence while challenging traditional narratives—positioning Black women as both subjects of grandeur and architects of their own futures. Having completed her Honours in Fine Arts, Nobakada’s practice continues to evolve across art and fashion.

Jordan Zayas Kelly’s white folding chair sculpture “August 5th, 2023 (In Memoriam)”, 2025, refers to an iconic moment from the Montgomery Riverfront Brawl on August 5, 2023, when a Black man used a white folding chair to defend a Black security guard who had been attacked while doing his job.
The image quickly became a cultural symbol—both serious and humorous—representing Black solidarity, resistance, and collective defense in the face of centuries of White brutality that enabled this.

Marking the 6yr anniversary of the groundbreaking exhibition, Destinee Ross-Sutton .knee and Ross-Sutton Gallery is proud to present

Jordan Zayas Kelly (b. 1997, Baltimore) is a London-based interdisciplinary artist working across sculpture, sound, and prose. Rooted in Afro-diasporic studies, her practice engages material histories and archival memory, transforming everyday materials like sugar, denim, cotton, and steel into works that confront their extractive pasts.
A graduate of Columbia University and the Royal College of Sculpture, Kelly’s work has been exhibited internationally and featured in major publications.
Through tactile and embodied approaches to the archive, she reclaims obscured narratives, foregrounding the political weight of personal and collective histories.

vanessa german “Naomi Osaka and The Divine Mother”, 2026
Rose quartz, amethyst, gold leaf, glass flowers, jade, epoxy, wood, astroturf

Marking the 6yr anniversary of the groundbreaking exhibition, Destinee Ross-Sutton and Ross-Sutton Gallery is proud to present

, the Grand Slam–winning tennis champion whose success and outspoken activism—amid the racism and scrutiny she has faced as a Black and Asian woman in a historically white-dominated sport, has made her - a powerful symbol of strength, identity, resilience and of Black excellence - The title links Osaka with the sacred archetype of the “Divine Mother,” suggesting that in Naomi Osaka and The Divine Mother by vanessa german the athlete is elevated as a modern embodiment of protective, creative, and spiritually powerful Black feminine energy.

vanessa german (b. 1976) is a multidisciplinary American artist whose work spans sculpture, performance, and poetry. Known for her richly adorned “power figures” made from found objects, her practice blends spirituality, activism, and storytelling to confront violence, racism, and healing within Black communities.

Rest in power Melvin “Mel” Edwards (1937–2026).
A pioneering force in abstract steel sculpture, Mel transformed industrial materials into a language of history, resistance, and freedom. His work carried deep political meaning—reflecting the African-American experience while pushing the boundaries of abstraction.

From the Whitney to studios and classrooms around the world, he was not only a celebrated artist but a devoted teacher and mentor to generations.

Mel was not only an artist of great vision, but also a builder of community. From his early role in helping shape what would become the in Harlem, to his lifelong commitment to dialogue between abstraction and social reality, he stood at the center of a vital conversation: that art, even in its most abstract form, can speak truth to power.

His sculptures—chains broken open, forms fractured yet resolute—remind us of both the weight of history and the possibility of liberation. They ask us to see, to feel, and to remember.

Whether in New York or working in Senegal, Mel remained deeply connected to his roots, his practice, and his purpose.

He will be remembered not only for his powerful work, but for his warmth, his generosity, and his ever-present smile.

His legacy lives on—in steel, in story, and in all those he inspired.

It’s official We are honored to introduce the 2026–27 Selection Committee — eight visionary leaders who will shape the next cohort of artists.

Angel Otero — Artist represented by Hauser & Wirth
Destinee Ross-Sutton — Curator & Gallerist, Ross-Sutton Gallery .knee
Tim Rodgers — Director, Museum of Arts and Design
Dan Nadel — Curator of Drawings & Prints, Whitney Museum
Kyle Freeman — Head of Arts & Culture, Tiffany & Co.
Mashonda Tifrere — Curator & Founder, ArtLeadHer
V. Joy Simmons, MD — Collector & Commissioner, the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Melissa Joseph — Artist represented by Charles Moffett Gallery

Applications open til April 5th. Link in bio.

NYC’s most ambitious artist residency program.

Don’t miss Congratulations ⭐️ The FLAG Art Foundation is pleased to announce ”Consequences of being,” an exhibition of new work by Deborah Roberts.
Bringing together large-format paintings, works on paper and, for the first time in her career, ceramic sculpture, the exhibition signals an expansion of Roberts’s practice and the intensification of her research into the history of colonialism.
Continuing to use collage to explore identity as something that can be fragmented and rebuilt while reclaiming found materials and images in the process, in these new works Roberts focuses on how Black bodies are seen, positioned and understood on a global scale.

Exhibition Dates: February 12-April 25, 2026

Deborah Roberts. ”Market value,” 2025.
Mixed media collage on canvas, 70 x 70 inches (177.8 x 177.8 cm)

Congratulations to In autumn 2026, the Ghanaian artist will take over the new site of the Fondation Cartier, inaugurated last October opposite the Louvre.
Titled Le Temps des récoltes / The Harvest Season 🌾

Opening in time for Paris October 2026 - February 2027
The exhibition will unfold across 6,500 square metres, presenting a series of new, site specific installations that bring together collected materials, Ghana’s colonial archives and industrial memory.
Remaining true to his collaborative approach, shaped by the work he has carried out in the art centres he founded in Tamale, Mahama has invited nine artists to take part.

Dorothy Akpene Amenuke, Gideon Appah, James Barnor, le CATPC, Courage Dzidula Kpodo avec Postbox Ghana, Zohra Opoku, Tjaša Rener, Feda Wardak.

Just a few months ago Ibrahim Mahama was also the first African artist to top ’s annual art power list.

For the Fondation Cartier, Ibrahim Mahama has imagined a living entity that resonates with the dynamics of the art centres founded in Tamale, Ghana. The Harvest Season evokes the patient cycle of creation: sewing ideas, passing on knowledge, harvesting the fruit of collective work.
He will present site-specific works, as well as new versions of his most emblematic installations.

Curated by
Aby Gaye (Ibrahim Mahama)
Jeanne Barral (Invited Artists)
Chiara Agradi (James Barnor)

Ibrahim Mahama
Founder and director and and

2025 Winner 🏆
From her earliest days working with line & colour, through to her monumental installations of swirling vortexes, Kalu’s practice is driven by rhythm & repetition that guides her movements and shapes her environments.
The jury commended Kalu’s bold and compelling work, praising her lively translation of expressive gesture into captivating abstract sculpture and drawing. Noting her distinct practice and finesse of scale, composition & colour, they admired the powerful presence her works create.

Nnena Kalu was born in Glasgow in 1966 to Nigerian parents. She is autistic and has complex support needs, and she has been making art for decades ❤️🙏🏾✊🏾
She lives & works in London, UK. Her practice is rooted in two-dimensional works, sculptures & installations. Through binding, layering & wrapping materials, Nnena Kalu explores space, scale and materiality with repetitive & durational sculptural processes. Her installations often begin with multiple compact ‘cocoons’ or ‘boulders’ of textiles and paper tightly packed in cellophane & tape. With an emphasis on colour & volume, these spheres of bound materials are clustered together around frameworks and existing structures. Kalu’s energetic installations become an extension of her physical movements, focusing on an important relationship between the artist’s body and her sculptural forms.

Kalu’s two-dimensional works are also viewed as sculptural explorations of space dictated by the length and reach of Nnena’s arms, as well as the size of the paper. Drawings and paintings are frequently produced in pairs, the second an echo of the first, a rhythm is built up and multiple layers are constructed. As with Nnena’s sculptural works, the drawings are an exploration of continuous line, shifting and ever-evolving forms.

Kalu’s works are a part of the Collection (UK) & the Arts Council Collection (UK).

The exhibition recently opened @ Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford, UK until 22 Feb. 2026. , , , and Nnena Kalu.