Melissa Tshikamba is an illustrator and figurative artist with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration from Brigham Young University. Based in Utah, she blends African symbols, sacred imagery, and abstract realism in her work. Using 22-karat gold leaf, oil, sculpture, and resin, she explores themes of spirituality, identity, and empowerment. Inspired by her ancestral heritage and the need for diverse representation, Melissa’s art celebrates the beauty and strength of the African Diaspora while challenging conventional narratives and promoting self-love.

Rachel Ostler is a Black, queer, multidisciplinary artist based in Salt Lake City, UT. As a whimsical and curious human, she makes across a lot of mediums: illustration, ceramics, poetry, and collage. Rachel’s art celebrates self compassion, common humanity and the small everyday joys that are easy to rush past. She hopes her art gives viewers permission to slow down, exhale and be more gentle with themselves.

My work exists as both a tribute and an invitation. Through mixed media, texture, color, and pattern, I celebrate Black beauty and culture while creating space for reflection, dialogue, and connection. As a first-generation African American, my identity and lived experiences heavily influence my Kreations. Much of my inspiration comes from my Kenyan heritage and the stories, traditions, and resilience passed down through my family.

I founded EMK Kreations as a way to extend my art beyond the canvas—using creativity to uplift African and minority communities, challenge limited perspectives, and amplify underrepresented narratives. Whether through fine art, wearable design, or teaching youth to explore their creativity, my goal is to make art accessible, affirming, and transformative. Each piece I create is an act of reclamation and celebration, honoring the beauty that has always existed, even when it has gone unseen.

Daney Lin was born in the hear of Murray, Utah. Whether it has been music, dancing, theatre, or painting, he has bene surrounded by art his entire life. While pursuing Track & Field at Southern Utah University, he ultimately graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Art.
Through his primary medium of acrylic painting, art has allowed him to fully express himself and cope with mental illness, including anxiety, Depression, and ADHD. He is deeply influenced by Asian and Hip-Hop culture, which have impacted the way he visualizes the world.
Art is his way of sharing his life experiences and interpreting his surroundings. Daney truly believes art has saved his life and feels it can positively affect others in a similar way.
As he always says, All I want to do is Create, Express, & Love.

I create layered portrait collages that explore identity, longing, love, loss, power, and belonging. My work centers people of color and draws from my own history, culture, and lived experience. I place my subjects in imagined landscapes where tenderness and strength can exist side by side.

I’m originally from St. Catherine, Jamaica and now live in Salt Lake City. I was trained in fine art and later built a career in graphic design. Both show up in my work. In the structure, the composition, the detail. But what drives me most is emotional depth and storytelling.

Create beautiful things. Be kind while you do it. I create layered portrait collages exploring identity, love, and belonging, centering people of color through culture, memory, and storytelling.

Annette G. Campbell is a professional multidisciplinary artist with over seven years of experience specializing in watercolor, oil painting, photography, silverpoint, chalk, and graphite. Her work has been exhibited in galleries throughout Rome, Milan, Venice, across Utah, and Hawaii.

Annette graduated in Hawaii with a Bachelor’s degree in University Studies, emphasizing Social Work and Art. She later continued her artistic training in Florence, Italy, through intensive classical art programs, refining her skills and deepening her appreciation for timeless artistic techniques.

Essie Soul is a mixed media artist, photographer and curator. Essie channels her creativity into thought-provoking pieces that invite viewers to engage with and reflect upon themes of sensuality, love, self-exploration, mental health, and intersectional issues. She incorporates her lived experiences as a first generation African American into her work, and her art is a dynamic blend of vibrant colors, intricate details, and symbolism, all woven together to convey messages of empowerment, equality, and justice.

Steven was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he was adopted as a baby and grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. Growing up, he has always been in tune with his creative side. Expressing himself through art was something that always made sense to him. This expression led him to study dance and painting as an adult. He received a BFA in Fine Art and a minor in Dance from the University of Utah. His love for dancing inspired his appreciation and fascination with the human form and guided him to the artist he is today. Steven is currently building bodies of work with various themes pertaining to the human condition. His current body of work touches on the experience of the black male in American culture.

I work with in oil paint. I would describe my style as Expressionistic with a dash of Surrealism that is ALMOST realism.. but not quite. I think art tells more of a story when it is not entirely perfect. Like most artist, I gather my inspiration from life experiences. I enjoy expressing through the figure – as I think that has carried over form when I use to dance. I am always fascinated on how the body moves.

Via is a painter whose work explores dreams, ancestry, memory, and the spiritual landscapes that exist between knowledge of self. Drawing inspiration from her African American and Caribbean heritage, family stories, cultural folklore and dream imagery, she creates paintings that transform personal experiences into vivid symbolic worlds.

Through vibrant color and layered storytelling, Via examines resilience, connection, and the enduring presence of those who came before us throughout her current artistic explorations.

Currently based in Utah, Via is developing a body of work centered on resilience, contrast, spirituality, and ancestral guidance through her African American and Caribbean experiences in the United States.