Sophia-Yemisi Adeyemo paints portraits of individuals from archival photographs into imagined landscapes. She is not rewriting history, but rather, using a stolen past as the raw material to construct a vision of a liberated existence. She is centered by the movements for Black/Indigenous food and land sovereignty, and the ways that food and land are at the core of liberation struggles across the globe. Adeyemo-Ross collages painted pieces of paper to envision a complete restructuring of Black/Indigenous relationships to land and labor. Her work depicts the restoration of ancestral agricultural practices and community sovereignty over land, lives, and collective care. It is an exercise in Black fugitivity and resistance, as well as tenderness and collectivity.

Sophia-Yemisi Adeyemo has been an Artist-in-Residence at BRIC Arts Media, Lazuli Residency, and the New York Academy of Art. Her work has been exhibited at BRIC House, C1760 Gallery, Marianne Boesky Gallery, Arnot Art Museum, The Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, and the Muskegon Museum of Art. She received her BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and is currently an MFA Candidate at The Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.

IG: @sophia.yemisi.adeyemo