PERSONAL PROFILE

I am a Nigerian-American visual artist and scholar of African Diaspora Art. I leverage my practice of visual art and research in art history to investigate historical and philosophical issues around the black body and cultural identity.

RECENT GRANTS & FELLOWSHIPS

2022 Mass Cultural Artist Fellowship in Painting (2022)

The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, ValleyCreates Artists: Project Evolution Grant (2022)

Mass Cultural Council, Holyoke Cultural Council Grant (2022)

Mass Cultural Council, Springfield Cultural Council Grant (2021)

SELECTED COMMISSION PROJECTS

Cover Art Initiative, Journal of Biological Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, CT. (2024)

Dr. Imeh was commissioned to create six works of art that will target the theme of six Biological Psychiatry issues. The project addresses topics like depression, psychosis, dementia, trauma, and addiction from the perspective of the Black community, but also draws upon ideas of faith, generational memory, and healing, qualities that are central to Black life. 

Mechanics Hall Portraits Project: Portrait of Frederick Douglass, Worcester County Mechanics Association, Worcester, MA.

Dr. Imeh was commissioned to paint Frederick Douglass as part of the first portraits of 19th Century Black leaders. The two other portraits feature Sojourner Truth and William and Martha Brown.

PUBLICATIONS–ART

Feeding the Veins of the Earth (2020), Angel Landing (2020), Lead Me to Rest (2020), in Shifting Time: African American Artists 2020-2021, The Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art, ed. Klare Scarborough and Berrisford Boothe, forthcoming fall 2022

Breathe (2020), cover illustration (back) and featured in A Gathering of the Tribes Magazine Issue 16, “The Black Lives Matter Issue,” eds. Reed, Ishmael and Simmons, Danny, forthcoming fall 2022

The Furies (1999), cover illustration for The Black Intellectual Tradition: Reading Freedom in Classical Literature, by Parham, Angel and Prather, Anika, Classical Academic Press, Camp Hill, PA, 2022

Good-bye Brother (2012), cover illustration for A New Perspective for the Use of Dialect in African American Spirituals: History, Context, and Linguistics, by Barber, Felicia, Lexington Books, Lanham, Maryland, 2021

Feeding the Veins of the Earth (2020), in Exhibition Catalogue for Another American’s Autobiography: Selected Works from the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art, at the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society’s Sigal Museum, ed. Claudia Volpe, 2021

Harvest (2013), [anti]Stasis (2012), in Orion Magazine: People and Nature, Volume 39, No. 3, Autumn 2020

Ovation (2018) cover illustration, several other works featured, in AISLIN Magazine, Spring 2019

Seraph (2018), in Art New England: Contemporary Art and Culture, Volume 40, Issue 1

PUBLICATIONS–WRITING

“Feeding the Veins of the Earth,” Editorial Essay contribution for Shifting Time: African American Artists 2020-2021, The Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art, ed. Klare Scarborough and Berrisford Boothe, forthcoming 2022

“The Hope of Radiance,” Editorial Essay contribution for Exhibition Catalogue Another American’s Autobiography: Selected Works from the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art, at the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society’s Sigal Museum, ed. Claudia Volpe, 2021

“I am My Ancestors’ Essence,” Exhibition Catalogue Essay for I am My Ancestors’ Essence, Tafeta Gallery, London, October-November 2021

“Hip Sistas in Flux: Globetrotting Maidens, Black Diaspora Shifts, and the Visual-Lingual Braid in Victor Ekpuk’s ‘Mbobo Series’” in African Graphics, Signs and Cultures: The World of Victor Ekpuk, ed. Falola, Toyin (2018)

“The Dynamics of Cultural and Aesthetic Expansion in Cross River Networks,” A Review for Purchasing Culture: the Dissemination of Associations in the Cross River Region of Cameroon and Nigeria, by Ute Röschenthaler (Africa World Press, 2011), in African Arts, Volume 49, Issue 1, Spring 2016

Daughters of Seclusion: The Revelation of the Ibibio “Fattened Bride” as the Icon of Beauty and Power (Peter Lang Publishing, 2012)

ART IN NOTABLE COLLECTIONS

Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art

Work Acquired: “Feeding the Veins of the Earth (Grounded Angel),” 2020

University Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Works Acquired: “Breathe,” 2020, “Butterfly Girl” (Artist Reproduction), 2017

Danny Simmons Collection of Art

Work Acquired: “Wisdom Becoming” Diptych, 2019

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Monuments to Our Skies. The National Academy of Sciences, Cultural Programs Gallery, Washington, DC. Feb – July 2025

The Hope of Radiance. August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC), Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Feb – June 2023

and i’ll be there with you. Pulp Gallery, Holyoke Massachusetts. Jan – Feb 2022

Ten Little Nigger Girls. Rush Arts Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Feb – Mar 2020

Suicide Girl and Her Nine Sisters. Western New England University Art Gallery, Springfield, Massachusetts. Feb – Mar 2019

17 Years Boy: Epilogue. Readywipe Gallery, Holyoke, Massachusetts. Feb – Mar 2019

17 Years Boy: Images Sounds, and Words Inspired by the Life and Death of a Young Black Boy. Time-based Live Painting and Multimedia Installation, Catherine Dower Center for the Performing and Fine Arts, Westfield State University, Westfield, Massachusetts. Jan 2018

Forgotten Girls: Black Heroines on the Edge of Darkness and Hope. Von Auersperg Gallery, Deerfield, Massachusetts, Feb 2017

Ten Little Nigger Girls. Arno Maris Gallery, Westfield State University, Westfield, Massachusetts, Feb 2016

Ten Little Nigger Girls: Works-In-Progress Exhibition. Art For The Soul Gallery, Springfield, Massachusetts, Nov – Dec 2015

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Queens, Gods, and Devotees. Curated by Susannah Gold. Maguire Museum of Art, St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sept – Dec 2024

Sea Change, Knowhere Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, June – September 2024

A Time Was Had: Is and Awakening. Curated by Mashonda Tifrere. Art Frieze Los Angeles. Maison Lune, Venice California, Feb 2024

Visible Man: Art and Black Male Subjectivity. Curated by Micheal D. Harris, PhD. Harvey B. Gantt Cennter for African-American Arts and Culture, Charolette, North Carolina, Jan-Apr 2022

Visible Man: Art and Black Male Subjectivity. Curated by Micheal D. Harris, PhD. Fine Arts Center Galleries, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, Oct – Dec 2021

Another American’s Autobiography: Selected Works from the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art. Curated by Claudia Volpe. Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society’s Sigal Museum, Oct – Dec 2021

Clarion Call: Poems and Paintings by Danny Simmons; Angels of 17 Years Boy by Imo Nse Imeh. Mariposa Museum, Oaks Bluff, Massachusetts, Jun – Aug 2021

We Are For Freedoms. University Museum of Contemporary Art, Umass Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts, Sep – Dec 2021

Noir, Noir: Meditations on African Cinema and its Influence on Visual Art. Prizm Art Fair, 2020

Breaching the Margins. Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2019

I Dreamed My People Were Calling But I Couldn’t Find My Way Home. Curated by Danny Simmons. Rush Arts Gallery (Chelsea), New York, New York, 2013