Black History Month: Artist Spotlight 2025
February 1 to February 28, 2025
Location: Exterior Digital Billboard
Artists: Boloebi Okah, Chimemelie Okafor, Ehiko Odeh, Imani Edwards, Kamorudeen Aruna, Krystal Ball, Njeri Gitau, Patricia Ellah
This Black History Month, we will be spotlighting the work of eight Black-identifying artists on our 72″ x 44″ digital display sign, prominently located on the exterior of our building.
Below you’ll find more information about the selected artists. If you’d like to see more of their work and support them further, make sure to follow them on social media!
Featured Artists:
Artist: Boloebi Okah (The Flying Bushman)
Social Media: @The_flying_bushman
Artist Bio: Boloebi Charles Okah is a multidisciplinary artist working in most mediums of art, currently living between Toronto, Canada and Nigeria. Born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, his colorful paintings pay homage to his homeland. His distinctive personal style emanates joy, peace and expresses a free spirit infused with the atmosphere of the Nigerian culture. Vibrant landscapes, tropical birds, flowers and women in colorful head wraps are all brought to life with contrasting yet harmonious colors and bold compositions. His works are linked by recurring themes of pattern and design rendered with a variety of materials and processes.
Spotlighted Artwork: Tides
Artist: Chimemelie Okafor
Social Media: @chi.mejo
Artist Bio: Chimemelie Okafor (b. 2003) is a Nigerian multidisciplinary artist and designer based in Toronto, Canada. She works with a variety of mediums, but a majority of her pieces are oil paintings. Inspired by colours and forms in her daily surroundings, her playful self-portraits explores the complexities of her identity. Through the interplay of objects with her body, she addresses topics and issues which are often overlooked and belittled. By combining patterns, colour overlays, and both 2d and 3d forms, she explores the intersection of human behaviour or emotions and the tangible world. She expresses herself through her art and she is able to reveal her current sense of self through her paintings, drawings and sculptures. The purpose of her works is to shed light on her life, leaving room to encourage and educate the viewers as they examine themselves through her works.
Spotlighted Artwork: BIG GIRL DILEMMA
Artist: Ehiko Odeh
Social Media: @ehikoo
Artist Bio: Ehiko Odeh is a multidisciplinary artist, arts facilitator, arts educator, memory worker and researcher from Lagos, Nigeria. Through her exploration of painting, collage techniques, and textiles, she intertwines themes of neocolonialism, coiffure—encompassing the products, ingredients, and distribution across African countries. Ehiko incorporates ethnobotany into her practice to educate and promote sovereignty through the knowledge of herbalism & wellness. Ehiko holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a minor in Creative Writing from OCAD University (2021) Ehiko has led workshops alongside Toronto’s Poet Laureate, Lillian Allen(2017). Ehiko is currently an Artist- In- Residence at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga, she has garnered recognition from the Member of Parliament for Richmond Hill, Ontario(2023) and participated at the DesignTO Festival (2024). Her paintings have been exhibited at Abbozzo Gallery(2024), BAND Gallery(2019 & 2023), The Gladstone House (2021-date), Lagos StreetSouk Festival(2019), Kolkata’s Academy of Fine Art in India(2023), Xpace Cultural Centre(2021), and Nicholas Metivier Gallery(2023). Noteworthy involvements include working with HERMÉS Canada (2023), HAVANA CLUB Artist In Residence (2023), and Foodshare Toronto(2023 & 2024).
Spotlighted Artwork: Home is wherever we are
Artist: Imani Edwards
Social Media: @imni.edwrds
Artist Bio: Imani Edwards (she/her) is a visionary Art Director and Photographer whose work intricately weaves the threads of storytelling and visual art. Driven by a desire to see beyond what is visible, Imani’s work unearths the multitude of experiences that shape our shared existence. Her lens becomes a powerful tool for exploring the dynamic interplay of movement and stillness, capturing moments that resonate with profound emotional and cultural significance. Imani’s photography serves as a testament to the power of visual storytelling, inviting viewers to engage with the deeper meanings and hidden stories within every frame.
Spotlighted Artwork: Cosmic Crown
Artist: Kamorudeen Aruna (Look It’s Kam)
Social Media: @look.itskam
Artist Bio: My name is Kamorudeen Toluwani Aruna and, I am an emerging visual artist and photographer from Lagos, Nigeria, with a Fine Arts Studio diploma from Centennial College in Toronto, Ontario. Highly passionate about colour, form, and shape, my work vividly captures our everyday emotions, merging my cultural influences with several contemporary elements. My work also explores a deep surrealistic storytelling, often featuring children to capture their innocence, joy, and complexity. My artistic vision extends beyond creating art. I aspire to be a visionary artist and, an art educator, guiding the next generation while pioneering new avenues in surrealistic art storytelling.
Spotlighted Artwork: Afrikan Giant
Artist: Krystal Ball
Social Media: @krystalballartist
Artist Bio: Krystal Ball is a Jamaican-born fine artist and muralist currently based in Toronto. She began using painting and drawing as an outlet at a very tender age and it grew into a life-long passion which saw her winning multiple awards, including placing first in an international art competition held by the Pan American Health Organization at the age of 10. Her work features the human figure and uses bold colours and fabric to tell stories of the human experience. Krystal attended Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia where she studied Fine Arts and spent her years after school volunteering her talent to social projects across the world. She represented Jamaica at an international level at the World Festival for Youth and Students, where she received a medal for her contributions to the festival. Krystal has most recently shown at the BAND Gallery in Toronto, PAMA, and was featured in the Toronto Star.
Spotlighted Artwork: My Brother’s Keeper
Artist: Njeri Gitau
Social Media: @njerdoesitagain
Etsy Shop
Artist Bio: My name is Njeri Gitau. I was born and raised in Kenya and currently creating my roots here in Canada, and it was here that I reignited a purpose to create more art! Flash back to 2023, God really sat me down and told me, “girl, use your God-given talent and get to work!” He put this dream in my heart (which till today is so vivid) that if I’m doing to do make it, it will be in my PURPOSE. And that’s when I made my painting known as “Africans in The Diaspora”- and this painting was truly and fully inspired by that dream. That Njeri Gitau, a fellow African in the diaspora, will find her way (and excitedly, it is the most sought after print of mine in my store). Unfortunately, or rather fortunately for me, it has already been purchased by my father who was all too excited to have the painting remain in the family, but I am pushing myself to creating more like it! Being able to create this last year has been my greatest joy, and I remain deeply inspired by my home country Kenya. But in all honesty, a lot of what I create is inspired by what I see around me daily, and then add in A LOT of colour. I love to see in art: the way light bounces of a building and illuminates the shape of it, how each culture has colour patterns so specific to them that they become part of one’s identity, and how a part of my identity lies within my Kenyan culture. Africans in The Diaspora, and more art tying to Kenya (and Africa) is the way I choose to share my world to others !!
Spotlighted Artwork: Africans in The Diaspora
Artist: Patricia Ellah
Social Media: @patriciaellah
Artist Bio: Patricia Ellah is a Nigerian Canadian multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto, Canada. Making images since she was 14, she went on to earn a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design. Her work has been featured in magazines and books; Dazed, PAPER, PhotoEd, The Business of Fine Art Photography, American Photography AP38 winner. She has exhibited with BAND gallery, En Foco, TIFF Bell LightBox, City Archives Toronto, Converse, Artscape Daniels Spectrum and more. Her art practice focuses on photography that celebrates the African and Caribbean diaspora. Ellah experiments and explores how the power of aesthetics can be used as a way to preserve moments. She centers her community and their lives in relationship to hers as the driving inspiration of her work.
Spotlighted Artwork: Tamar
