Today’s reveal of The Iconic Home, the second-annual virtual showcase presented by AD and the Black Interior Designers Network, highlights a bevy of stylish rooms from 13 different Black designer-led firms. Inside some of the spaces, including those crafted by Danielle Colding, Joan Goodwin, Rasheeda Gray, Andre Hilton, Travis London, Keia McSwain, DuVäl Reynolds, and Mikel Welch, the art on display is just as striking as the furniture. And good news for designers and collectors: It’s also available for purchase.
Among the featured artists are Aythamy Armas, Daniel Blignaut, Rodgers Boykin, Gayle Harismowich, Lutz Hornischer, Tomohiro Inaba, Albert Madaula, Johannes Nielsen, Antonio Obá, Victor Ryan, KwangHo Shin, Matthew Stone, Denisse Ariana Perez, and Emre Yusufi. Below meet the artists whose deeply personal works bolster The Iconic Home’s environment with an additional layer of creativity.
Sasha-Loriene
Contrast by Sasha-Loriene
Growing up, Sasha-Loriene observed few examples of flourishing Black female artists, so she never thought that her childhood love of the arts could transcend mere hobby status. “In not seeing myself in the art world during my youth, I ultimately did not pursue the arts until adulthood, when I could no longer wear a mask or live a life opposite of my creative beliefs,” she recalls. Determined to not let others feel as stymied, Maryland-based Sasha-Loriene founded the online arts incubator Mayhue Studios and the nonprofit Black Girls Who Paint, an organization that illuminates the very community that lacked visibility when she was a kid. Its purpose? To encourage young women to make their own imprint on the art world.
When she’s not connecting fellow artists to projects or helping them gain access to resources, Sasha-Loriene is busy experimenting with media “to create texture and add a layered method of storytelling” in her work. Her current explorations—including a series of self-portraits “detailing my journey of self-love and body acceptance independent of the hypersexuality/commodification of Black women in westernized society,” as she puts it—reflect Sasha-Loriene’s mission of capturing the human experience, “namely the intersectionality between identity, self, and purpose.”
Koby Martin
Alone with Company by Martin
Since the age of three, Martin—a native of Ghana—relished coloring, drawing, painting, and even poring over art books. But it wasn’t until he was 13, when he was named first runner-up in a global art competition, that he realized the arts could be a profession. “I didn’t know how to make it a career because the infrastructure and the knowledge to become one in Ghana wasn’t available,” he says. But he learned fast. Now based in London, Martin spends his days collaborating with brands like the record label 0207 Def Jam and Karl Kani Streetwear. He is gearing up for a solo exhibition, If These Walls Could Talk, in November.
His African heritage continues to inform his artistic process. Consider the Ghanian Adinkra symbols, found on the likes of fabric and pottery, that often appear in his works: The figure of a Siamese crocodile, for example, is a symbol of unity, and plays a starring role in Spotlight Dreams, his first public piece, commissioned in spring 2021 by Tate Collective Producers for the Bankside neighborhood. The subjects in Martin’s paintings tend to straddle the realms of sadness and courage, yet “themes and concepts of family, memory, and nostalgia,” he explains, “mark the central basis of everything I create.”
Joe Turner
Balance of Power by Turner. His work is available at Design Supply Shop, Paloma & Co., and Modern Remains.
Turner started drawing in the first grade, but the Birmingham, Alabama, artist, currently an interior design student at Samford University, “never would have imagined that [he] would become an artist.” That possibility only unfolded the summer after he graduated high school, when his alma mater—well aware of his talents—tapped him for a series of paintings. Soon, faculty members were asking him to dream up pieces for their houses. Buoyed by the reception, Turner started an Instagram account that reached—and captivated—an even wider audience. “I was still a little hesitant about my journey because of the color of my skin. It’s hard to believe that you’ll be successful in something when you don’t see a lot of people who look like you succeed in that profession,” he says.
