2021 Finalist

Adebunmi Gbadebo

Adebunmi Gbadebo creates sculptures, prints and paper using Black hair sourced from the diaspora, along with historical and cultural imbued materials. For several years, Gbadebo has been traveling to the former True Blue plantation in Fort Motte where her ancestors once toiled and where some of them are buried. Named for the indigo that used to grow in its environs, at True Blue all that can be seen for miles around are cotton fields and red dirt. There is no discernable acknowledgment of the backbreaking, forcibly enslaved labor that once cultivated this sediment and laid the foundations for what stands there today. Gbadebo’s work is included in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. Adebunmi is currently represented by Claire Oliver Gallery, Harlem, NY.