Nsenga Knight: Other Stars

Each of my artistic projects is responding to my self-reflexive question: Who am I and what is my place in this world? My artworks exist as invitations to examine new possibilities that broaden our collective imaginations and challenge traditional boundaries of race, nationhood and religion. —Nsenga Knight

Knight is a first-generation Black American Muslim woman from Brooklyn, and her work is influenced by Islamic geometric art and the Black experience. In this exhibit, she works with geometric drawings, text paintings, photographs, oral history recordings and other media. Listen to the enthralling stories of Black women in Brooklyn who converted to Islam prior to 1975. Learn about Malcolm X’s pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964, his last religious duty. See how 10th-century astronomical renderings relate to a sociological interpretation of pilgrimage.

Knight received her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania and has exhibited work at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art, the New Museum for Contemporary Art and MoMA PS1. She lives and works in Cairo, Egypt.

Admission is free. The Kwan Fong Gallery, located in Soiland Humanities Center, is open to the public 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Street parking is by permit 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Parking lots are located on Mountclef Boulevard north and south of Olsen Road.

Image: Nsenga Knight, Other Stars Don't Behave So, ink and wax drawing, 20 x 30 inches, 2013. Courtesy of the artist.