Malene Barnett

Malene Barnett’s large ceramic wall work Memories of Home draws upon the artist’s African Caribbean heritage and her background studying both textile design and ceramics. Inspired by the pattern design and mark-making techniques of West African art and architecture, the artist creates freehand and intuitive patterned ceramic tiles embodying the tradition of Nigerian Uli and Kassena painting—hued with rich earthen tones and recombined by the artist in a large-scale loose grid assemblage. Created using Jamaican clay, Barnett’s work connects the craft traditions at the heart of the Black diaspora—linking African traditional design with contemporary art via the artist’s Caribbean heritage.

Courtesy of the artist and Wexler Gallery, New York

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Malene Djenaba Barnett is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, textile designer, and community builder based in Brooklyn, New York.

Malene is interested in finding ways to define the Black narrative while raising awareness about racial inequality in America. Her artistic practice is inseparable from her work as a community builder. She shares her African Caribbean heritage with a global audience through sculptural ceramic installations and vessels, mixed media paintings, and tapestries. Barnett exhibits nationally, gives talks, and publishes work raising awareness around Caribbean makers and ceramic art traditions of the Black diaspora. She holds an MFA in Ceramics from the Tyler School of Art & Architecture and undergraduate degrees in Fashion Illustration and Textile Surface Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Malene has participated at Anderson Ranch, Watershed, Greenwich House Pottery, Judson Studios, and Haystack residencies. In addition, she is a grantee of a Fulbright to Jamaica and the founder of the Black Artists + Designers Guild, a collective of independent Black makers.