In anticipation of the Harlem Fine Arts Show’s 15th anniversary, some of the artists who will be featured in the February 24-26 show gathered in Harlem to discuss art and the importance of the HFAS’s platform for “African diasporic artists.”
Ademola Olugebefola is an artist who has supported HFAS’s mission since its inception.
Olugebefola was a founding member of the WEUSI Artist Collective and has been a Black art and artist advocate since the 1960s.
“It’s the only show of its kind of this magnitude,”said Olugebefola of HFAS. “”There’s plenty of art expos all over the major cities, there’s none that represents exclusively artists of African descent.”
According to Olugebefola, the show is an important place for old and young to interact and learn from one another.
Kailee Finn, a 20-year-old artist making her debut in the Harlem Fine Arts Show, said she is soaking up as much knowledge as she can from older, more established artists.
Finn, a junior at Fashion Institute of Technology, said she learned about the HFAS through Instagram.
“I definitely feel that the world of art is opening up more,” said Finn, who counts Kehinde Wiley and Angela Davis as inspiration. “My art tends to be more social political, so my other inspirations are Martin Luther King, Angela Davis, Dr. Omar Johnson. They also helped me realize that my voice can be heard and I can still take a stand for something.”
The mixing of ages and experience is exactly what HFAS founder Dion Clarke hoped to create 15 years ago.
“We have artists that started with us 15 years ago, to artists that just coming on board,” said Clarke. “There’s one common goal and that’s really to salute the arts, really expose their creativity and really learn to become an artist.”
Clarke said the show has become so big that it is moving to downtown Manhattan. This years show will be at the Glasshouse event space and will start on February 24th.