The Artists: Alma, Amy, Lalla, Edmonia, Hung

The artists here have been selected from various lists we found online from Google searches. We learnt so much during these searches and realized how much work needs to be done in terms of equality, not just gender but also race. We have a long way to go.  

Alma Woodsey Thomas (born September 22 1891) was an African-American Expressionist painter and art educator. Thomas was the first African-American woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and within the same year an exhibition was also held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Read more about Alma here: Artsy.net

Amy Sherald, (born 30 August 1973) is an American painter based in Baltimore, Maryland. She is best known for her portrait paintings that address social justice, as well as her choice of subjects, which are drawn from outside of the art historical narrative. Sherald's work focuses on issues of race and identity in the American South. Today, she only paints African-Americans. Her experience of being one of very few black students to attend a private school often influences her work. Read more about Amy here: AmySherald.com

Lalla A. Essaydi (born 1956) is a Moroccan-born photographer known for her staged photographs of Arab women in contemporary art. Her current residence is in New York. Lalla Essaydi’s work focuses on Arabic female identity explored through a 19th-century Orientalist style, wherein the artist hand-paints Arabic calligraphy in henna on different surfaces, such as fabric, bodies, and walls. Her photographs address the complex reality of the power structures imposed on the Arab female body through a tradition-laden lens. Her work is held and exhibited at institutions such as the National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C. the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Fries Museum in the Netherlands. Read more about Lalla here: Artsy.net

Mary Edmonia Lewis (born 4 July 1844) was an American sculptor who worked for most of her career in Rome, Italy. She was the first woman of African-American and Native American heritage to achieve international fame and recognition as a sculptor in the fine arts world. Her work is known for incorporating themes relating to black people and indigenous peoples of the Americas into Neoclassical-style sculpture. Read more about Edmonia here: Biography.com

Hung Liu (刘虹) (born 17 February 1948) is a Chinese-born American contemporary artist. One of the first Chinese artists to establish a career in the West, Liu is regarded by many as "the greatest Chinese painter in the US’’. Liu's paintings typically feature layered brushstrokes combined with washes of linseed oil which gives the imagery an indistinct and drippy appearance. Read more about Hung here: Artsy.net

All excerpts from Wikipedia, thanks Wiki!