Karin Merx Fine Art

In 2019 I embarked on a journey to paint a series of portraits of black queer people who were and are role models in society.

During my conversations with Dr Phyll Opuku-Gyimah, I strongly felt the need to use my art to teach. To show the world and start teaching children, teenagers, and young adults about LGBTQI+ and how being black and gay or trans is normal and not a white privilege.

This collection comprises eleven portraits, that included Nina Simone, Audre Lorde, Marsha P. Johnson, Angela Davis, Elizabeth Amisu and many more.

The poet Anneka Chambers, who does micro poems, collaborated on this project with her to represent the essence of each of these women.

We need to come to that stage where we don’t have to say, ‘I identify as…’, where we are accepted as human beings and all we say is our name and ‘Hello’, a place where fear resulting in homophobia and racism is no longer an issue.

The book will have a link to a lesson plan, because this is specifically made for education.

You can read a recent interview I had about my art as well as this project with Rika Chandra on her writing place here.