Nikesha Breeze

Biography
Nikesha Breeze works from an AfroCentric, AfroFuturistic lens. Her artistic practice aspires to heal trauma along ancestral lines by reimagining the past to redesign the future. The images in the series Archival Portraiture: The Reclamation of the Black American Image come from rare daguerreotypes dating back to the 1840s depicting Black people. Breeze renders portraits of enslaved people, laborers, craftsmen, or children life-size as a way to impart honor and recognition to Black ancestors who never received such acknowledgment in their own time.

Nikesha Breeze is an African American/Assyrian interdisciplinary artist, activist, and educator. Breeze was recently selected by the New Mexico Women in the Arts as a 2024 Woman to Watch in New Mexico. The Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama commissioned Breeze to produce an ambitious installation of 108 Death Masks to be cast in bronze, which will debut at the museum in 2024. She currently lives and works in Taos.

The Black image has been shaped and reshaped throughout history to serve the needs of, and generate value for, those in control. When this value structure is reclaimed, especially by black artists, and these images are reintroduced to the world through the eyes of honor, the images are given new life and new potential to support the foundation of Black futurity. – Nikesha Breeze

Education
2017-2019
AFA, University of New Mexico-Taos

Solo Exhibitions
2024
Black Archive, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
2023
Within this Skin, BLAC Tucson, Tucson, AZ
2022
Four Sites of Return, NMSU University Art Museum, Las Cruces, NM
2021
Four Sites of Return, Form and Concept Gallery Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
2020
RITUAL AND REMEMBRANCE, UNM Atrium Gallery, Taos, NM
2018
WITHIN THIS SKIN: New Oil Paintings, The Harwood Museum of Art: Studio 238, Taos, NM
2019
108 DEATH MASKS: A Communal Prayer for Peace and Justice, Inaugural artist for Black History Month, Santa Fe Community College, Santa Fe, NM

Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Women to Watch in New Mexico 2024, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM
From the Ground Up: Nurturing Diversity in Hostile Environments, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
Black Shedding(s), Longwood Art Gallery, Bronx, NY
2023
Black Artists of Oregon, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
2022
The Indigo Project, SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA
Art Meets History: Many Worlds Are Born, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM
Indelible Blue: Indigo Across the Globe, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM
2021
Here, Sanitary Tortilla Factory, Albuquerque, NM
Contemporary Art/Taos 2020, Harwood Art Museum, Taos, NM
2020
CHARCOAL: Strokes of Vitality, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
AN OVERWHELMING RESPONSE, Curated by Carmen Hermo, A.I.R Gallery Contemporary Art, Brooklyn NY
2019
GIVE ME BODY!, DIVINE FEMME, MOCADA Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts, Brooklyn NY
2018
FERAL HOWL: A Feminist Response to Our Time, Freeform Art Space, Santa Fe, NM
2017
CURRENTS NEW MEDIA INTERNATIONAL ARTS: Opening Night, El Museo, Santa Fe, NM
CRYING OUT LOUD, curated by Micol Hebron, CCA Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM
AHA FESTIVAL OF PROGRESSIVE ARTS, WITHIN THIS SKIN, 40 foot interactive installation, Santa Fe, NM
2016
FOUND, curated by Sarah Stolar, Atrium Gallery UNM, Taos NM

Selected Performance Art/Theater
2022
BLACKDOM, 516 ARTS, Albuquerque, NM
2019
BLACK OBRONI, a solo Performance as a part of “ADeakyeabia_ENubueke”, Curated by VaBene Elikem Fiatsi, Alliance Francais, Kumasi, Ghana
THE ENCHILADA WESTERN, Collaboration with Guillerrmo Gomez-Pena, Paseo Contemporary Art Festival, Taos NM
BODY AS CONDUIT, In Collaboration with Guillerrmo Gomez-Pena and Balitronica Pena, Taos, NM
2016
CIRCUS LUMINOUS, Writer/Director/Set Design/Costume Design, THE Lensic Performing Arts Center, Santa Fe NM
2015
SEE/SAW, Wise Fool NM, acrobatics, aerial stilts, dance, Bogota, Colombia
2014
TEARS OF EROS, Penasco Theater, Penasco NM
FLEXION, Wise Fool NM; acrobatics, aerial stilts, dance, Atlanta, Georgia
2013
SEARCHING FOR SHAMS, AhA Festival of Experimental Arts, Santa fe, NM
2012
EMERGENCE, AhA Festival of experimental Arts, Santa fe, NM
2010
EARTH MANDALAS, Aztec Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

Collections
David Naylor Interiors, Sante Fe, NM
EJI Legacy Museum Permanent Collection, Montgomery, AL
Sacred Arts, Albuquerque, NM
Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell Collection, Cincinnati, OH

Awards
2022
Makers Muse, Artist Grant Recipient, Kindle Project, U.S.
National Performance Network Storyteller’s Grant, NPN and Partners, U.S.

2021
National Performance Network Creation Fund/Development Fund Grant, NPN and Partners, U.S.

2020
NY Artists Relief Grant, NY arts fund, New York, NY
“We Recognize You” Grant Recipient, Three Sisters Collective, Santa Fe NM
Fellowship Award, Paseo Taos, Taos, NM

2018
3D Juried Award Winner, ArtPrize 10, DeVos Place Convention Center, Grand Rapids, MI
Black Contemporary Arts Award Winner, DeVos Place Convention Center, Grand Rapids, MI

Residencies
2022-2023
Osramba Studio West African Bronze Casting Residency with Ibrahim Aska, Nuhalenya Ada, Ghana

2021
EARTHSEED GLOBAL ARTS RESIDENCY | 6 Weeks Afro-Mexico Residency | Mexico
Map of La Soldadera: An AfroFuturist guide book of AfroMexico, Paseo Project, AfroMexico

2020
Vermont Studio Residency Fellowship Award, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

2019
Osramba Studios Artist Fellowship with Kwame Acoto Bamfo, 5 week Sculpture Residency, Ada, Ghana
PaIR Perforcraze International Artist Residency, 2 weeks Performance Art Residency, Kumasi, Ghana

2015
Penasco Theater New Mexico, Penasco, NM

Press
2024
Doreen St. Félix, Bryan Stevenson Reclaims the Monument, in the Heart of the Deep South, March 25
Rachel Harris-Huffman, Decolonizing Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Hyperallergic, March 19
Darlene Melendez, Taos artist resculpts history in new national monument, KOAT 7 Action News, February 19
Morning Word: NM artists catch national attention, Santa Fe Reporter, February 21
Maxwell Rabb, 5 Standout Shows to See at Small Galleries This February, ARTSY.net, February 16
Kathleen Roberts, The power of image: Nikesha Breeze explores her ancestry through portraiture and sculpture, The Albuquerque Journal, February 11

2023
Sheets, Hilarie M., Alabama Sculpture Park Aims to Look at Slavery Without Flinching, The New York Times, October 11

2022
Mónica Ortiz Uribe, Art as reparation: Artist Nikesha Breeze delivers dignity to African ancestors, El Paso Times, February 4

2021
Tamara Johnson, Nikesha Breeze: 12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now, Southwest Contemporary, May 25
Michael Abatemarco, The voyage home: Nikesha Breeze’s ‘Four Sites of Return’, Pasatiempo in Santa Fe New Mexican, May 22
Hakim Bellamy, Nikesha Breeze’s Work of Arc, Meow Wolf, May 11
Alex De Vore, Sail On, Santa Fe Reporter, April 27
Lynne Robinson, Nikesha Breeze on loving, shaping and remembering, Taos News, April 14
Homage, American Art Collector Online, April 2

2020
Maria Manuela, New Mexico Magazine, November 6
Michael Abatemarco, Karsten Creightney at Richard Levy Gallery, Pasatiempo in Santa Fe New Mexican, October 30
Lynn Robinson, Black History and a Reimagined Future, Tempo Magazine, Taos News, January 22

2019
Jordon Eddy, Return to Blackdom, Southwest Contemporary, March 27
Dena Miller, What is ‘identity politics’?, Tempo Magazine, Taos News, June 25

2018
Collegiate Staff, ArtPrize artist highlights the reality of “black death”, The Collegiate, September 28
Maria Egolf-Romero, A Conjuring of Self: Nikesha Breeze, UNUM Magazine, August 12
Jordon Eddy, Nikesha Breeze: Within this Skin, Southwest Contemporary, June 1

Press Release
2024 Black Archive at Richard Levy Gallery
2023 Richard Levy Gallery at Intersect Palm Springs
2020 CHARCOAL: Strokes of Vitality at Richard Levy Gallery