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Thank you @observer for this feature of me, @marquita.sams, and our family's art collection. To learn more about our story, check out the documentary Miracles. Link in bio. by @marques.redd

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8 months ago

In the 1990s, Melgenia and Vernon Redd opened Miracles Fine Arts Gallery, the first Black art gallery in Macon, GA. That archive grew into one of the largest private collections of Black art in the Southeast, including over 800 works by artists including Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence.

We are proud to share our documentary about this historic art collection “Miracles: The Redd Family Collection of Black Art,” which is now streaming on YouTube.

Click the link in our bio to watch the full documentary.

#BlackArt #BlackCollectors #ArtCollector #Artcollection #ReddFamily #RainbowSerpent #BlackGallery #Macon taken in Macon, Georgia by @marques.redd

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a year ago

Part 2

We are thrilled to announce “Myth-Science of the Gatekeepers,” our upcoming exhibition at the Pittsburgh Glass Center featuring 16 glass sculptures portraying Black queer Kemetic deities. These statues represent a profound spiritual system intertwined with the Rainbow Serpent Collective’s exploration of African cosmologies, multimedia art, innovative healing protocols, and emerging technologies.

Join us for the grand opening at the Pittsburgh Glass Center on Friday, May 3, 2024, from 6–9 PM. It will be free and open to the public. The show will be on view through July 28, 2024.

✨TO WATCH THE FULL VIDEO CLICK THE LINK IN MY BIO.✨

Thank you to all of our sponsors:
- @theheinzendowments
- @studioforcreativeinquiry
- @carnegiemellon
- @neaarts
- @the_pittsburgh_foundation
- Arts Alliance for Contemporary Glass
-Dawn & Chris Fleischner
-Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh
-Arts, Equity, & Education Fund
-Anonymous taken in Pittsburgh Glass Center by @marques.redd

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3 years ago

With the Autumn Equinox, we arrive at the moment when the Sun crosses the Earth’s equator and the balance of night and day reach equilibrium. Night inches earlier, bit by bit, as those of us in the Northern Hemisphere glide toward the winter solstice. When the Sun dips below the horizon, a new vision of our 8-ft, gold-gilded sculpture “This Is the Body of the Sun” is born each night. Stop by Arts Landing in Downtown Pittsburgh between sunset and 10pm to experience our sculpture of Ra, the Kemetic solar deity, illuminated in its evening form.

The figure’s chest is wrapped in a 12-row hieroglyphic collar and features a hymn to Ra excerpted from the Kemetic “Book of Coming Forth By Day.” Each of its 12 lines is sculpted in raised relief, transforming the sculpture into a tactile, readable oracle.

The translation is below:

“Ascribe praise to Ra, the Lord of Heaven; the Prince of Life, Strength, and Health; Creator of the Gods. Adore ye Him in His beautiful presence in His rising in the atet boat. The beings of the heights shall worship thee, the beings of the depths shall worship thee. Thine enemy is given to the fire, the evil one hath fallen; his arms are bound, Ra hath removed his legs; the sons of impotent revolt never again shall rise up! The House of the Prince is in festival, the sound of those that rejoice is in the mighty dwelling. The Gods are rejoicing when They see Ra in His rising; His beams flood with light the countries. The majesty of this venerable God advanceth, He arriveth at the land of Manu, He illumineth the earth at His birth every day, He arriveth at His region of yesterday. Mayest Thou be at peace with me, may I see Thy beauties, may I advance upon the earth, may I crush the evil one, may I destroy Apep at his moment.”

We hope that you have a chance to (re)experience the work in this new season.

Music by: @angeltheoracle

#Equinox #Autumn #Spirituality #Astrology #AncientEgypt taken in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by @marques.redd

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19 days ago

“Give Light to the Whole Circumference” - New Permanent Light Artwork by @rainbowserpentinc (@marques.redd & @mikaelowunna) at the @augustwilsonculturalcenter.

The August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC) has unveiled “Give Light to the Whole Circumference,” a new permanent artistic lighting installation by Rainbow Serpent, visible every night after sunset, that transforms the Center’s iconic exterior into an illuminated public art experience.

Architect Allison Williams conceived the building as a vessel of Black expression, with its signature form modeled after the Somali dhow, a seafaring vessel that carried African culture across oceans. “Give Light to the Whole Circumference” extends that idea through a programmable light experience that activates the Center as a living public artwork that can assume new forms over time.

The installation’s permanent artistic programming draws inspiration from August Wilson’s American Century Cycle, including two immersive light journeys: “Sail the Road of Heaven,” inspired by “Gem of the Ocean,” and “Coming and Going,” inspired by “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.” Additional special lighting sequences have been developed for the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, Juneteenth, Pride, and other civic occasions.

The title “Give Light to the Whole Circumference” comes from an ancient Egyptian text that imagines light as a life-giving force radiating outward across the world. In bringing that idea into conversation with August Wilson’s plays, Rainbow Serpent sought to create an experience in which light becomes a language for memory and spiritual transformation – a force that connects the ancestral and the contemporary, the earthly and the cosmic.

Created with support from the Henry L. Hillman Foundation, @radworkshere, and @downtownpitt. Fundraising is still underway for Phase II, which is supported in part by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Community and Economic Development and Nancy D. Washington.

Artists / Creative Direction: Rainbow Serpent (Marques Redd & Mikael Owunna)
Technical and Systems Support: @sprklighting
Photo/Video: @joeykennedyphoto taken in August Wilson African American Cultural Center by @marques.redd

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22 days ago

To celebrate yesterday’s new moon, we want to share one of our latest cosmological portraits entitled “X (Nu/Apuat/Geb).” For those who get to this post early, if you swipe through there is also a little sneak peak at our artistic and photographic process. We rarely share behind the scenes, and this may or may not survive Instagram, so we hope you all enjoy it while it is available.

We had the immense pleasure of collaborating with legendary photographer @ajamustudios last year as he shot “FIERCE: Pittsburgh,” a series of portraits of Black LGBTQ luminaries in Pittsburgh. While he was in Pittsburgh, we also took the opportunity to photograph him in our own Rainbow Serpent style as well. Shot over two days in three distinctive painting motifs, Ajamu embodied the deities Nu, Apuat, and Geb - three deities from Rainbow Serpent Cosmology.

Together, these figures form a triptych of elemental forces: Nu, the primordial Black waters of infinite potential; Apuat, the opener of ways and cosmic navigator; and Geb, the god of the living Earth and tactile embodiment.

Through fluorescent body paint, sacred gesture, ultraviolet photography, and precise photographic composition, the portrait reimagines the ancient Egyptian Geb–Nut tableau as a modern-day Black queer cosmogram. Ajamu’s body becomes both surface and conduit, a living axis where myth and flesh converge. This is portraiture as ritual act.

Creating the final composited image greatly expanded our creative practice - layering temporal and spiritual registers into one visual field. The result is composited embodiment, a photographic cosmogram that signals a deepening of our engagement with myth, ritual staging, and the living body as divine text.

Photography & Painting: @marques.redd & @mikaelowunna
Model: @ajamustudios

#rainbowserpentcosmology #cosmology #divineart by @marques.redd

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a month ago

Georgia friends! Tomorrow, Friday, Aug 21 @ 5:45pm, we will be screening our film “Miracles: The Redd Family Collection of Black Art” at @maconfilmfest. Please join us at @masmacon for a screening and panel featuring Melgenia Redd and @marquita.sams from the Redd Family.

About the Film:
In 1990, Melgenia and Vernon Redd opened a gallery called Miracles Fine Art, and it was the first institution of its kind in Macon, GA, that specialized in exhibiting the work of Black artists. Inspired by an activist passion forged in an era that saw the end of Jim Crow, they were determined to contribute to the preservation and celebration of Black art and culture. Over time, they built a collection of over 800 items, including paintings, sculptures, masks, mixed media works, and woven fabrics. In 1996, the gallery was closed due to health challenges. The entire collection was subsequently moved to storage.

This documentary explores the history of the collection and its revival in the 2020s by their children @marques.redd and Marquita Sams.

#MaconFilmFestival #MiraclesFineArt #BlackArtCollection #ReddFamilyCollection taken in Macon, Georgia by @marques.redd

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2 months ago

Saturday August 15! Join us for an online talk with Dr. Marques Redd.

“Bringing the Gods Back to Life: Black Queer Cosmologies in Sculpture, Ritual, and Film”

What does it mean to revive ancient Egyptian cosmology as a living, embodied practice centered on Black queer life? In this online class, Dr. Marques Redd shares the vision behind Myth‑Science of the Gatekeepers, a project of the collective Rainbow Serpent (which advances Black LGBTQ culture through emerging tech, multimedia art, and traditional African knowledge systems). The project’s core is a set of sixteen life‑size glass busts of Black queer people, each cast in the form of a reimagined Egyptian deity – Amun, Khonsu, Ra, and others.

These sculptures are potent ritual objects at the heart of a rapidly growing artistic and spiritual universe, inspiring additional works produced by Redd such as (1) Blackstar Sanctuary, a VR film featuring a virtual temple dedicated to the sixteen deities; (2) Opening the Mouth, a live performance, inspired by the ancient Egyptian Opening of the Mouth ritual, designed to ritually enliven the statues; (3) This is the Body of the Sun, an eight‑foot, cast aluminum sculpture of Ra; and (4) May We See Thy Beauties, a forthcoming feature film with fourteen members of the Sun Ra Arkestra.

Redd will situate this work within three interwoven histories: the complex metaphysics of ancient Egyptian artmaking; the African American tradition of engaging ancient Egypt (beginning with the 19th‑century scholar, journalist, and abolitionist Martin Delany); and the long, often overlooked lineage of Black queer artists who have activated Egyptian myth as a source of liberation.

Get tickets now at prs.org/events✨ taken in The Philosophical Research Society by @marques.redd

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2 months ago

Saturday August 15! Join us for an online talk with Dr. Marques Redd.

“Bringing the Gods Back to Life: Black Queer Cosmologies in Sculpture, Ritual, and Film”

What does it mean to revive ancient Egyptian cosmology as a living, embodied practice centered on Black queer life? In this online class, Dr. Marques Redd shares the vision behind Myth‑Science of the Gatekeepers, a project of the collective Rainbow Serpent (which advances Black LGBTQ culture through emerging tech, multimedia art, and traditional African knowledge systems). The project’s core is a set of sixteen life‑size glass busts of Black queer people, each cast in the form of a reimagined Egyptian deity – Amun, Khonsu, Ra, and others.

These sculptures are potent ritual objects at the heart of a rapidly growing artistic and spiritual universe, inspiring additional works produced by Redd such as (1) Blackstar Sanctuary, a VR film featuring a virtual temple dedicated to the sixteen deities; (2) Opening the Mouth, a live performance, inspired by the ancient Egyptian Opening of the Mouth ritual, designed to ritually enliven the statues; (3) This is the Body of the Sun, an eight‑foot, cast aluminum sculpture of Ra; and (4) May We See Thy Beauties, a forthcoming feature film with fourteen members of the Sun Ra Arkestra.

Redd will situate this work within three interwoven histories: the complex metaphysics of ancient Egyptian artmaking; the African American tradition of engaging ancient Egypt (beginning with the 19th‑century scholar, journalist, and abolitionist Martin Delany); and the long, often overlooked lineage of Black queer artists who have activated Egyptian myth as a source of liberation.

Get tickets now at prs.org/events✨ taken in The Philosophical Research Society by @marques.redd

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3 months ago

Rainbow Serpent is a cultural infrastructure builder, Black queer intellectual ecosystem, residency platform, mentorship structure, spiritual technology lab, commissioning entity, convening institution, transmedia production studio, and workforce incubator for artists of all disciplines (from musicians, dancers, and poets to welders and camera operators). We are helping to create an arts and culture sector that prioritizes artist-led cosmologies and institutions, local cultural movements with global impact, long-duration worldbuilding, decentralized infrastructure, politically expansive work, transformative ritual spaces, and reparative investment. Thank you @theheinzendowments for documenting our journey as an emergent cultural institution.

H Magazine
📝 by @ls.elwin15208
📸 by @joshuafranzos by @marques.redd

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5 months ago

What a day for celebration! A few hours ago, Rainbow Serpent unveiled our first monumental public sculpture: “This Is the Body of the Sun.” This 8ft cast aluminum sculpture with gold gilding is our reinterpretation of the Ancient Egyptian deity of the sun, Ra. For us, this figure symbolizes leadership, sovereignty, and inner heroism.
We pray that this work will serve as a solar and spiritual beacon for Arts Landing, the City of Pittsburgh, and all who encounter it. May we all shine as brightly as we can, inspire each other with ethical clarity, and use our talents in the service of communal uplift.

The collar features a hieroglyphic hymn to Ra from the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. Each glyph is meticulously sculpted onto the 12 lines of the collar. An excerpt is below:

“Ascribe praise to Ra, the Lord of Heaven; the Prince of Life, Strength, and Health; Creator of the Gods. Adore ye Him in His beautiful presence in His rising in the atet boat. The House of the Prince is in festival, the sound of those that rejoice is in the mighty dwelling. The Gods are rejoicing when they see Ra in His rising; His beams flood with light the countries. Mayest Thou be at peace with me, may I see Thy beauties.”

First, a big thank you to @emeraldkane, who served as the model for the sculpture and is a daily embodiment of Ra’s luminous virtues. Thanks to @kendrawingram, @anastasjames, and the team at the @culturaltrust and @trustvisualarts for supporting the work in its incarnation journey. Also many thanks to @heathermcelwee and @pghglasscenter for supporting our first iteration of this work, “Myth-Science of the Gatekeepers,” where we brought Ra to life alongside 15 other deities as glass sculptures in 2024. We are grateful as always to our arts community in Pittsburgh for all of your support. Thank you for providing us with the space to bring African cosmologies into public space, from our “Three Sisters” light installation on the Sister Bridges, to our 1200 sq ft installation “Playing the Cosmic Strings” which is still on view down the street from Arts Landing at @heinzhallpgh and @pghsymphony.

#ancientegypt #kemet #ra #publicart #sculpture taken in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by @marques.redd

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6 months ago

Following the incredible energy of the opening, we invite you to continue engaging with FIERCE: Pittsburgh through upcoming programs centered on image-making and storytelling.

Tuesday, April 14, 6–8pm
Between Flesh and Firmament: Rainbow Serpent Image-Making and Cosmology
Join us for a film screening of Between Us, The Gaze, offering an intimate entry point into Ajamu X’s practice, followed by a conversation with artists and project participants Marques Redd (@marques.redd), Mikael Owunna (@mikaelowunna), and Devan Shimoyama (@devanshimoyama). Working across text, photography, and painting, these artists’ expansive practices activate the body as a godform and position art as a mode of world-building.

We hope you’ll join us to reflect and connect alongside artists and community.

🔗 Learn more and register via the links in our bio

FIERCE: Pittsburgh is dedicated in celebration of the life of Christopher Smith.
Produced with generous support from @duolingo.

Image credit: Mikael Owunna and Marques Redd (Rainbow Serpent), X (Nu Apuat Geb), 2025 taken in Silver Eye Center for Photography by @marques.redd

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6 months ago