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UMUC hosts new exhibit: Diaspora Dialogue: Art of Kwabena Ampofo-Anti, Alexander "Skunder" Boghossian and Victor Ekpuk

Spanning a variety of media, including ceramics, paper, prayer boards and printmaking, the exhibit, Diaspora Dialogue: Art of Kwabena Ampofo-Anti, Alexander “Skunder” Boghossian and Vitor Ekpuk, is a mixing bowl of cultures, perspectives and beliefs between Africa and America.

The exhibit runs from February 12 to May 12 in the University of Maryland University College’s Leroy Merritt Center for the Art of Joseph Sheppard and features nearly 60 works by three artists who were born in Africa and later lived in the Washington, D.C. area.

The Leroy Merritt Center for the Art of Joseph Sheppard is located at 3501 University Blvd. East in Adelphi, Md., and is open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

An opening reception is scheduled for February 24 (3 p.m.) and will feature Chika O. Okeke-Agulu, assistant professor of art history, Department of Art & Archaeology/Center for African American Studies, at Princeton University. To RSVP for the reception or to receive more information, call 301-985-7937 or visit umuc.edu/art.

Alexander “Skunder” Boghossian is from Ethiopia and spent his adult life in Washington, D.C., where he taught in the art department at Howard University until his death in 2003. His art was influenced by various American artists, but primarily by the art of West Africa.

Victor Ekpuk is a respected artist from Nigeria and currently lives in Alexandria, Virginia. He works out of his studio in Washington, D.C. to creatively fashion artworks that incorporate an age-old tradition of the secret writings of Nigeria. Inspired by this Nigerian writing system, he creates universal themes to communicate contemporary human experiences and conditions through his art.

Kwabena Ampofo-Anti is a Ghanaian art educator and visual artist who splits his time between Washington, D.C. and Hampton, Virginia, where he is an art professor at Hampton University. Ampofo-Anti’s ceramic sculptures are inspired by African architecture. His contemporary art structures attempt to create a sanctuary, thus ensuring that ancestors can communicate their presence to the present.