in bell hooks' essay, “Homeplace”, she writes, “I want to remember these black women today. The act of remembrance is a conscious gesture honoring their struggle, their effort to keep something for their own.” i like to characterize my paintings as abstract storytelling. i am telling Black women that i see them–i see their emotional journeys–letting them know that i am mapping our stories. the narratives in my paintings begin with my own emotional trajectories—then, they become culturally shared experiences of Black women who are painstakingly trying to keep ‘something’ for themselves. we want self-love. we want reprieve. we want resolve. we want to be free from the casualty of masking ourselves for society and cultural expectations. my paintings honor the struggles of Black women healing from the denial of suffrage that benefited other people and not ourselves.

i am a recent Pratt Institute, MFA Alumni.

i was born and bred in Baltimore, MD.  

i lived in Brooklyn until 2018.

i now live in Bloomfield, NJ with my wife, our two ridgebacks and cat.

pricing + general inquiries
nikki@nikkiterry.com