John Ashford

A Brooklyn artist born and raised in the south, with a fervent desire to showcase various faces of the African American experience. Ashford recounts experiences in art school where he faced retribution from professors based on critiques in which it was said that he drew too many black figures.

Ashford believes that the lack of acceptance many Black artist’s works face is based on a simple truth, ‘we don’t like ourselves, so we don’t like to see ourselves.’ He also thinks that the public perception of art by black artists is watered down by media proliferation of stereotypical images.