Photography by Avery Savage

For our third feature in The Shed’s Open Call: Portals series, we step inside the world of Haitian-Canadian artist Laurena Finéus. As she prepared for the opening preview, we caught rare behind the scenes moments while she put the finishing touches on Together, We Could Have Made Mountains, her first textile installation that weaves Haitian migrant stories into a landscape of dreams, sacrifices, and shared histories. Alongside the installation, her paintings incorporate soil, mica, and natural pigments, transforming each piece into both a vessel for memory and a living archive of migration.\

In our conversation, Laurena reflects on migration as resistance in the face of racial violence, the coumbite tradition of coming together in mutual support, and how working with textile and ceramic beads became a ritual of care, preservation, and possibility. She speaks to the balance between rupture and refuge, grief and futurity, and the grounding practices that keep her rooted while navigating institutional spaces.

ARTISTS TO KNOW: ALANIS FORDE

Photography by Shalaina Joy

As we approach the Affordable Art Fair Spring Edition opening this Wednesday, March 19th in NYC, we are excited to spotlight Alanis Forde, one of SHEER's exhibiting artists. Alanis is a figurative portraiture and surrealist artist who lives and works in Barbados. She works mainly with oil paint and collage on traditional canvas. The use of unrefined brushstrokes, dotted textures, patterns and vibrant colors allows the viewer’s eye to be in constant motion and transports them into a paradisiacal dystopia.

art, collages, healing art, identity, mixed media, visual artistBianca Jean-PierreMarch 17, 2025collage, Barbados, caribbean artistsComment

ARTISTS TO KNOW: ASARI AIBANGBEE

Photography by Kalynn Youngblood

As SHEER prepares to exhibit at the Affordable Art Fair in NYC opening Wednesday, March 19th, we are proud to showcase Asari Aibangbee’s stunning fiber works that explore themes of personal evolution, joy, and cultural lineage through rich textures and vibrant hues. Joining a roster of exceptional artists, Asari, continues to push the boundaries of contemporary art, using color, craft, and collective memory as tools for transformation.

art, healing art, mixed media, visual artistBianca Jean-PierreMarch 12, 2025fiber art, textiles, artists to know, queer artistsComment

ARTISTS TO KNOW: NIA WINSLOW

Photography by Nabila Wirakusumah

I first stumbled across Nia Winslow’s work, totally by accident, and there was a piece titled “Secret Keeper” which I couldn’t believe was entirely paper because of the intricacies and detailing of the bobos and barrettes that took me back to my childhood. While digging deeper into her catalog I was shocked to realize her art is entirely collage and paper-based. The level of detail and intention behind her work is so incredibly impressive and even more so once I learned she was self-taught and only started making art in 2019!! Nia’s collages connect the Black and African diaspora by portraying our shared experiences from the seemingly mundane to the more poetic while simultaneously using unique strips of paper to also highlight we are not a monolith and to honor our diverse range of cultures.

art, collages, fashion, film photography, identity, mixed mediaBianca Jean-PierreSeptember 18, 2024collage, Black Diaspora, black women artistsComment

ARTISTS TO KNOW: AUDREY LYALL

Photography by Nabila Wirakusumah

As soon as we arrived at Audrey Lyall’s studio in Brooklyn and she greeted us, her one-of-a kind creative eye could already be captured with her style. She embodies the confidence and vibrant energy of the maximalist subjects found in her artwork. Audrey uses a variety of materials such as acrylic paint, watercolor, clay, fabric, collaged paper, and more to create maximalist Afro-futurist works. To Audrey, “everything in the world is an art material”

beauty, art, fashion, identity, visual artist, mixed mediaBianca Jean-PierreFebruary 28, 2024artists to know, black beauty standards, sustainability, brooklynComment