Akea Brionne is an interdisciplinary researcher and artist, working within Afro-Surrealism. Her practice explores the relationship between history and contemporary society. Working in lens-based media and textiles, the work analyzes the impact of colonial systems on cultural storytelling, memory, assimilation, and the African Diaspora, primarily within American and Caribbean society.
Brionne is originally from New Orleans, Louisiana and was raised in Baltimore. She currently lives and works between Detroit, MI and Kansas City, MO. Brionne is currently an AICAD Fellow, Assistant Professor at the Kansas City Art Institute.
Born in 1996 in Louisiana
Lives and works in Detroit, MI
Installation view of Akea Brionne: Trying to Remember at Library Street Collective, 2023-2024
“I explore a lot of ideas surrounding displacement, assimilation, and the preservation and reclamation of ancestral wisdom through storytelling, Surrealism, and world building as a Creole woman.”
— Akea Brionne
Selected Work
Akea Brionne
Pond of Life, 2024
Digitally woven image on jacquard, glitter, thread, poly-fil
60h x 96w in
Akea Brionne
The Moon Directs the Sea, 2023
Jacquard, Rhinestones, Thread, Poly-fil
48h x 96w in
Akea Brionne
Detail of All Noir, You’re a Star, 2023
Jacquard, Rhinestones, Thread and Poly-fil
48h x 48w in
Selected Press
June 18, 2024
Akea Brionne’s Dazzling Artworks Blend Traditional Tapestry with Photography
Galerie Magazine
March 29, 2024
Akea Brionne’s Uncanny Rhinestone Tapestries Unsettle Memory and the Familiar
Colossal
December 15, 2023
In Her Photo-Based Tapestries, Detroit Artist Akea Brionne Conjures an Afro-Surrealist World
Artnet
November 24, 2024
Akea Brionne conjures her ancestral traditions at Library Street Collective
Detroit Metro Times
November 20, 2023
Get Your Culture On. Best Black Artists and Exhibits to See This Fall and Winter
Ebony Magazine
July 11, 2023
Keeping Time
Baltimore Beat