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nikeshabreeze

@nikeshabreeze

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Mende/Assyrian
INTERNATIONAL ARTIST
INTERDISCIPLINARY PAINTER, SCULPTOR PERFORMANCE ARTIST

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Earlier this year i had the privilege to be a lead carpenter on @nikeshabreeze incredible "Living Histories" Large scale Installation at Biennale of sydney.

Working along side head of construction Justin Dudley, Nikesha, Dan & the Biennale team we built a full scale 1850's style cabin. We attempted to keep the aesthetic as close to original style using only locally sourced aged Oregon posts, rafters, beams, live edge cladding boards, roof battens and so on. Every component was hand built & naturally stained from the photo frames, to the bed frame & the original clay hearth fireplace.

At the centre of the installation sat a massive Boab tree made from 2000 metres of cotton gauze. As well as this there were large scale cyanotype prints + more.

The installation told the story of fragments of over 2500 first hand testimonies of African American elders who experienced enslavement as children & the work shows their voices carried forward as a living field of memory.

So grateful to Nikesha & the incredible crew for bringing this story & sculpture into form.

📸. @thelunchboxhero

🪵❤️‍🔥

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Take a walkthrough of Living Histories with the artist.

Nikesha Breeze walks you through the monumental installation “Living Histories” commissioned for the 2026 Biennale of Sydney @biennalesydney curated by the incredible Hoor al Qasimi @hooralq Vocals by @ginabreedlove and music composition by @l.nuzzles

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I am struck, my heart broken open into a thousand pieces. The love emanating from this work, from these brilliant artists. The tenderness and ferocity and joy and grief and presence. Each a healing balm on the wound. I am forever grateful and humbled by this gift. These small clips are filled with beauty, each one an entire world. Thank you again and again to every artist who made this performance possible.

Opening day of Living Histories

performers : @basjiaforever @nikeshabreeze @nmmwl @abpresents @globalrations @yacou_mbaye
producer: @girlwhereyouat
music: @l.nuzzles @ginabreedlove
sound engineering @kai__breeze
Finale song ( Hold on) sung by S. Juain & Artists United @juainyoung
Costumes: @anthonyaitch

@biennalesydney @hooralq @living_histories_project

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Save the Date! Nikesha Breeze presents Living Histories, a monumental installation and live durational performance.

Saturday March 14
12 to 2 PM
White Bay Power Station
25th Biennale of Sydney @biennalesydney
Sydney, Australia

For the Biennale of Sydney, Breeze will present a two hour performance unfolding within the immersive environment of the installation itself. Five extraordinary performers move through the space across multiple stages of activation, weaving together dance, singing, original music, performance, spoken word, and poetry.

Over the course of two hours, the installation becomes a living archive. Bodies move through towering cotton forms, voices carry ancestral memory, and sound fills the architecture of the power station. The work brings together brilliant Black performers and artists from across the African diaspora, each carrying their own practice, discipline, and presence into the unfolding score of the piece.

This post highlights the incredible artists who are part of this collaboration. Their voices, movement, and music shape the living heartbeat of the work.

Free and open to the public.
Arrive early. RSVP if available.

This is a performance not to miss.

For those unable to join in Australia, the work will be documented on video and may be livestreamed here on Instagram.

Read about the artists.
Share the date.
Come witness this once in a lifetime performance.

@nmmwl @andrewbukenya @basjiaforever @girlwhereyouat @kai__breeze @ginabreedlove @l.nuzzles @living_histories_project @globalrations @biennalesydney @nikeshabreeze

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Hi Everyone!. I am blown away. This Open Call for Black Voices has moved in a way I could never have imagined.
Thank you!! In one week, over 200,000 (!) people viewed, liked, shared, and followed to be part of this new project. And more than 600 people applied to lend their voices. This tells me something very important. We want these histories alive now. We want the people who lived them to be remembered with our full voices…. I am so deeply humbled by this response. There is something much larger moving through this work..

If you are new here, welcome. My name is Nikesha Breeze. I am an interdisciplinary artist working with Black history and Black future, guided by the truth that our ancestors are not behind us, they are with us. My work spans classical painting, sculpture, performance, and installation, weaving archives and historical reclamation into contemporary spaces.

My new immersive work, “Living Histories,” will premiere at the Sydney Biennale in March 2026. Born from the first hand narratives of thousands of formerly enslaved people from the now endangered national archives,this work enlivens these histories in a monumental way. It is sculpture. It is the living sound of a hundred elders. It is monumental textile work. It is original music, voice, and live performance.

It is a Living History.

And it is only the beginning. We have launched a fundraiser to help fund this incredible work.

After the Biennale, the dream is to bring this project to the United States. To partner with organizations and communities here. To expand the audio archive with many more voices. To build a living memory vault for future generations. To honor and reveal the truth of these lives.

If you feel called to be involved, to be a reader or researcher in future iterations, or to talk about partnership reach out through the link in my bio.

To see this project come to life DONATE TODAY to help it grow,

Thank you for being here and for sharing this work.

Learn more + donate:
At the link in my bio. or go to. www.nikeshabreeze.com

@nikeshabreeze
@levygallery
@voide.studio
@newmexicoblack

#LivingHistories #NikeshaBreeze

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Last night at the artist’s preview of the new Studio Museum in Harlem was pure joy. To stand in that breathtaking space—built to honor, teach, and uplift generations of Black artists—was deeply moving. Every wall, every conversation, every face in that room carried history, love, and brilliance. It felt like a family reunion across time. I was in awe, surrounded by icons whose work shaped me and by friends whose work continues to shape the future. I barely took any photos, too full of the moment. Just gratitude, beauty, and the weight of legacy.

so so thankful.

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I am so thrilled to finally share this news! I have been awarded a commission by YALE University through the Committee for Art Recognizing Enslavement (CARE) to create a new permanent monument at YALE. This monumental public work will acknowledge Yale’s historical roles and associations with slavery and the slave trade.
CARE’s mission is to bring forward works of art and programming that foster reflection, remembrance, discussion, learning, and healing. To be part of this work is both humbling and deeply inspiring.

At a time when these histories are being actively and purposefully erased, this kind of work and recognition becomes even more essential and important.

As part of this commission, I will spend four months as an Associate Research Scholar in Residence at the YALE School of Art, collaborating with historians, artists, and community members to imagine and design a monument that can truly hold space for remembrance and dialogue.

During this time, I will also be in residence at NXTHVN, the extraordinary arts space founded by Titus Kaphar and Jason Price. NXTHVN has become a beacon for mentorship, creativity, and community in New Haven, and I am honored to be in that environment while developing this project.

This opportunity fills me with gratitude and excitement. I cannot wait to begin this journey, to learn from everyone involved, and to share the process of building a monument that honors the past while opening space for healing and future generations

#yaleuniversity #yaleschoolofart #nxthvn

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Blackness is…The Refusal to be Reduced
Curated by Nikesha Breeze

TACOMA ART MUSEUM @tacomaartmuseum on view May 18th 2024-Mar 2027

“I stood at the border, stood at the edge and claimed it as central . l claimed it as central, and let the rest of the world move over to where I was.” ~Toni Morrison

Historically the representation of the Black figure in Western Art and literature has been centered on the objectification, exploitation, and exotification of Blackness and the Black body. Our socio-cultural inheritance and archival collections of Western Art, would have one believe that Black people either did not exist at all in the West, or were solely shadowed figures skirting the margins of an idyllic and expansive frontier.

This exhibition, titled, “Blackness is. . . The Refusal to be Reduced” seeks to recenter the margin, bringing to focus the unique, complex, and visceral ways contemporary Black artists in the West refuse reduction and express beauty, subtlety, resilience, and connection through their work.

This exhibition invites us to glimpse the ways these artists are engaging with themes of memory, materiality, marginality and generational inheritance. From the delicate use of hair to weave stories of migration, to the sound of horse bones speaking of time and memory. The Black artists in this exhibition challenge the traditional boundaries of Western Art through their poignant uses of medium, form and storytelling.

“Blackness is…..the Refusal to be Reduced”
Curated by Nikesha Breeze @nikeshabreeze

Featuring the incredible multidisciplinary work of:

Lisa Jarrett @lisanicolejarrett
Nate Young @moniquemeloche
Brent Holmes @bread_n_circuses
Willie J Bonner
Nikesha Breeze @nikeshabreeze @mtartagency
Bronte Vélez @littlenows
Tigre Mashaal-Lively @tigrebailando

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I find myself In an endless stream of gratitude.
Last month’s long anticipated opening of the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park @freedommonument in Montgomery Alabama, was by far one of the most powerful, impactful and life changing moments I have experienced. A dream of my life, to contribute to such a meaningful and historic tribute. A world changing monument to the millions of lives taken by the Transatlantic and Domestic Slave Trade and to the millions who survived it. This site is absolutely one of the most important sites for all Americans to visit in their lifetimes. I am so thankful to my dearest friends and family who came from across the country to share in this powerful moment. My beautiful sons @kaibreeze__ and Samka who have seen every single step, huge love to one of my closest friends @kimgryphon and to @yohanaglobal who has been such an incredible support this last year. A deep bow to the phenomenal artist and great inspiration, Hank Willis Thomas @hankwillisthomas ( pictured with me at the Freedom Monument and his art installed at the National Memorial) And thank you to the phenomenal staff working at the @eji_org and the Freedom Monument, they are the ones supporting and sharing this work with so many people everyday. Truly deep work these folks do. 🙏🏾🌹🙏🏾
So grateful. More and more to share.

photos by @katerussellphoto

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We are pleased to announce that NMC member artist Nikesha Breeze has been signed to MTArt Agency ( @mtartagency ).

Founded in 2015, MTArt Agency is a certified B Corp® global talent agency representing the world’s leading contemporary visual artists. Unapologetically bold, creatively unbound, and socially driven, MTArt is where artists become agents of cultural transformation.

Congratulations, Nikesha!

Image 1: Nikesha Breeze in her Taos studio
Images 2, 3, and 4: Taken from the opening of EJI’s Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, Nikesha’s piece is titled “108 Death Masks: a communal prayer for peace and justice”
All photos by Kate Russell, @katerussellphoto
@nikeshabreeze

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There are so many incredible moments that happened this week. too many to count. This will be one of two posts celebrating the amazing people i had the chance to share this with.
I not only saw my work realized in its final and permanent home, but i was in presence and in company with some of my biggest art hero’s and some of the greatest sculptors and artists and activists of our time.
This set of photos are taken by the amazing Kate Russell @katerussellphoto
Huge gratitude and celebration for the genius of Bryan Stevenson @bryanstevenson1959 and the entire EJI team.
Pretty starstruck.. we met the one and only Reverend Jessie Jackson! ✨✨ @revjjackson
Such a phenomenal experience for my family. @kaibreeze__ @cicimccoy @robinjspear @yohanaglobal

I had the pleasure and humble joy at meeting filmmaker and visionary Ava Duverney @ava
Artists that inspire me deeply, Sandrine Plante @plante.sand and Cliff Fragua @cfragua55 brilliant sculptor Kumi Samuel @shebaartgh The incredible Deb Willis @debwillisphoto and contemporary artist Rayvenn D Clark @rayvenndclark_art and Marine Tanguey @marinetanguyart @mtartagency Such an honor to be graced by these phenomenal folks and to share in this moment together.

More pics to come!

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THANK YOU to everyone who came out, sent love, and supported the opening of Black Shedding(s)! I am beyond grateful to have @sipcurationco__ first in person exhibition receive so much love. I am in deep gratitude for my community, it would not have been possible without me saying people need this & you showing up to receive it! To the artists, the level of gratitude cannot be explained. We did it!

I am a learner & storyteller who wants our knowledge and narratives to be visualized and embodied. I appreciate the trust in me to make that real. Our liberation is connected & the shedding to get there is happening. This is really the beginning to so much more, follow @sipcurationco__ to stay updated!

Black Shedding(s) is open until July 10th at The Longwood Art Gallery.

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