Bria Sterling-Wilson
Bria Sterling-Wilson (b. 1993) is a Baltimore-based photographer and collage artist whose work explores the Black experience through innovative and captivating compositions. A graduate of Towson University with a B.F.A. in Photography and Digital Arts, she recontextualizes found materials such as magazines, newspapers, and fabrics to create striking scenes, portraits, and interiors. Her art reflects on themes of cultural appropriation, race, police brutality, identity, stereotypes, and beauty standards imposed on women of color. By juxtaposing contrasting hair textures, facial features, body parts, and environments, her collages capture the complexity of the African diaspora while challenging oppressive histories and discriminatory imagery.
Sterling-Wilson’s work has been widely recognized and exhibited internationally, with showcases in Sanquhar, Scotland; Brooklyn, New York; Los Angeles, California; Atlanta, Georgia; Washington, D.C.; and Baltimore, Maryland. Her artistry has been featured in prominent publications like BmoreArt Magazine, Contemporary Collage Magazine, EBONY Magazine, and Black Collagists: The Book. Currently an artist-in-residence at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, Sterling-Wilson uses her practice to reclaim and reshape narratives surrounding African American identity, celebrating the resilience, beauty, and solidarity of the Black community.
Wifey Material, 2022
Collage, found imagery
Image size 15″ x 9.5″ Framed 22″ x 18″
Using magazine clippings, newspaper, and fabric, I recontextualize found materials to examine how African American men and women are represented and perceived in society. My collages juxtapose individuals with contrasting hair textures, facial features, body parts, environments, and clothing, reflecting the complexity of the African diaspora. Visually, these works address cultural appropriation, race, police brutality, stereotypes, identity, and the idealized beauty standards imposed on women of color. The process of cutting and manipulating these materials gives me control over how our story is told, allowing me to express the oppressive histories tied to the Black community. For centuries, representations of people of color have been tainted by discriminatory imagery. My contemporary collages challenge these reactionary views, highlighting the resilience, beauty, struggle, and solidarity inherent in the Black experience, which I explore through my creative practice.
Bria Sterling-Wilson (b. 1993) is a Baltimore-based photographer and collage artist. In 2021, she earned her B.F.A. in Photography and Digital Arts from Towson University in Towson, Maryland. Sterling-Wilson’s work utilizes found imagery, magazines, newspapers, and fabrics to create captivating scenes, portraits, and interiors that explore the Black experience.
Baltimore native Devin Allen is an international, award-winning self-taught photographer and artist who gained national attention when his photograph of the Baltimore Uprising was published on the cover of Time magazine in May 2015, making him only the third amateur photographer to have his work featured in the publication. Following the untimely deaths of George Floyd, Tony McDade, and Breonna Taylor, his photograph from a Black Trans Lives Matter protest was published on the cover of Time magazine in June 2020.
Devin Allen, a self-taught artist from Baltimore, rose to prominence when his photograph from the Baltimore Uprising appeared on TIME magazine’s cover in May 2015, marking him as only the third amateur photographer to achieve this distinction.
Jerrell Gibbs explores the complexities of life by investigating his personal experiences and those of his family and friends. Ultimately working to evoke the emotions that one experiences during the maturation time period from a child to an adult. In this way, through his work he finds ways to cope and re-examine the past. While simultaneously examining present realities of living in the twenty-first century as a Black male.
Jerrell Gibbs’ paintings are acts of resistance, asserting power over visual stereotypes. He paints the Black male figure with adornments, such as flowers, and contextualizes them in moments of peace, rest, and solitude. These gestures function to dismantle the visual misrepresentation of violence, trauma, and pain.
Jerrell Gibbs (b. 1988; Baltimore, Maryland) opposes deceptive perceptions of Black men by questioning master narratives and their connection to a muted visual history. Gibbs’ paintings are acts of resistance, asserting power over visual stereotypes. He paints the Black male figure with adornments, such as flowers, and contextualizes them in moments of peace, rest, and solitude. These gestures function to dismantle the visual misrepresentation of violence, trauma, and pain.
