Bougainvillea, 2023 oil on canvas by: Reginal O'Neal

Reginald O’Neal (L.E.O.) (Miami, Florida 1992) began painting in 2012, soon meeting his friend and mentor, Alejandro Dorda, who would teach him classically. His captivating oil paintings portray narrative scenes deeply influenced by his upbringing in Overtown, a historically Black neighborhood in Miami. In 2014, L.E.O. took his first trip to Europe to complete murals in Austria, Norway, and Spain, as well as exhibit in a collective show alongside his teacher in Berlin, Germany. In the years since, Reggie has focused on canvas work, residencies, and murals that embody his community surroundings, experiences and beliefs.

O'Neal's work has been acquired for the permanent collections of the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, and the Rubell Museum. His work has been included in exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Youth Concept Gallery, West Palm Beach, FL, and Urban Art Clash Gallery, Berlin, Germany. Spinello Projects also featured O'Neal's work in Art Basel Miami Beach 2023.

Host: Rosie Gordon-Wallace Recording Producer: P.S. Social Sound Design/Editing: Raymel Casamayor IG - @_reginaldoneal_

Mwasi Kitoko by Byunga Kialeuka

A Congolese-born narrative painter, curator, and mural artist, Bayunga Kialeuka grew up in Miami (USA), where he worked as an artist before moving to other US cities, all the while variably travelling to DRC. His work focuses on themes of social realism, investigating society through the prismatic lenses of economic ecosystems, race and cultural identity. While in the USA, the artist started working along the lines of classicism and modernism to represent his immediate urban surroundings, focusing on the African American context.

Bayunga Kialeuka currently works on an ensemble of portraits and figurative depictions of protest, domestication, and status in Kinshasa (DRC). This expanded series further compares the hierarchical temperament of Kinois (indigenous Kinshasa residents) at home and abroad to scale concepts of escapism and utopia in the face of the stigma of lower working class communities. His drawings and paintings now start shaping a triangular representation of contemporary pan-Africanism aiming to deconstruct our accepted understanding of wider African history to make place for new perspectives into how Africans and Afro descendants are shaping a truly global society. Having painted numerous large murals as a way to engage with contemporary history and local society in the USA, Kialeuka also worked as a curator and producer of art exhibitions. His compositions are technically influenced by various painters, photographers, filmmakers, writers, musicians, and philosophers alike. Among them are Palmer Hayden, Moké, Tupac Shakur, Claude Brown, Franco Luambo, Lucian Freud, Romare Bearden and Eric Monte.

Host: Rosie Gordon-Wallace Recording Producer: P.S. Social | Sound Design/Editing: Raymel Casamayor IG – @bayunga.kialeuka.studio

More artwork by Bayunga Kialeuka

"Panoticon"

Four Moments of the Sun II By: T. Eliott Mansa

T. Eliott Mansa is a Miami based visual artist who specializes in creating assemblages, paintings, and sculptures. His artwork is characterized by the fusion of styles reminiscent of visionary Southern vernacular sculpture. Mansa's primary objective is to stimulate the imaginative faculties of his audience, urging them to challenge prevailing norms and discover their own socio-political agency within their communities. He draws on a diverse range of influences, including West African, Caribbean, and Southern religious and vernacular sculptural traditions. Mansa received a BFA from the University of Florida (2000) and an MFA from CUNY-Hunter College (2018). Recent exhibition venues include LnS Gallery and David Castillo Gallery in Miami, FL, African American Museum of the Arts, DeLand FL, and Miami Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora, Miami FL. Mansa is a recipient of the 2019 and 2022 Ellies Creator Awards, Green Space Initiative Grant, and the YoungArts Microgrant.

Host: Rosie Gordon-Wallace Recording Producer: P.S. Social | Sound Design/Editing: Raymel Casamayor T. Eliott Mansa IG - @Teliottmansa

More Artwork by T. Eliott Mansa:

"Dirge blues III" by T. Eliott Mansa