Paper Stories, Layered Dreams: The Art of Ekua Holmes​


Golden (detail; 2009), Ekua Holmes.

Artist and Boston-based community activist Ekua Holmes has turned her hand to children’s-book illustration in recent years, with her vivid collages adorning the pages of works such as Black is a Rainbow Color (2020) by Angela Joy and Carole Boston Weatherford’s life of the Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer (2015). This display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (until 23 January 2022) brings together more than 40 of her illustrations, along with a selection of portraits and scenes of city life. Find out more from the MFA’s website.

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Jazz (illustration for Out of Wonder, 2016), Ekua Holmes. Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; © Ekua Holmes

Sufficient Grace: Ms. Ivy Beckles (2009), Ekua Holmes. Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; © Ekua Holmes

.Sufficient Grace: Ms. Ivy Beckles (2009), Ekua Holmes.

Matter of Time (2006), Ekua Holmes. Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; © Ekua Holmes

Matter of Time (2006), Ekua Holmes.

Golden (2009), Ekua Holmes. Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; © Ekua Holmes

Golden (2009), Ekua Holmes.