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Demond Melancon - Jah Defender (Photo: Ryan Hodgson Rigsbe)
“I do it to inspire people, especially peers in my culture, to be better than what they think we’re supposed to be like. In New Orleans, in the culture, you’re not considered an artist. I branched out to show them that beading can be contemporary art, can be fine art. That’s what I stand on and that’s what I fight for.”
New Orleans-based artist Demond Melancon explores the two-hundred-year-old-plus culture of Black Masking suits in his contemporary art portraiture. He has been exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Art Miami, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art in Brooklyn and the Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans.
Read more at Design Milk
Demond Melanchon - What's Still Going On
Demond Melancon - Bras Coupe
Demond Melancon - Ethiopia (V&A)