REVERENT PORTRAITS w/ S. YEMISI ADEYEMO

In this three-hour workshop, participants will learn the fundamentals of portrait drawing and create a small, embellished frame. Through guided technical instruction in facial proportions, observation, and shading, participants will draw a portrait from a photograph of their choosing, with opportunities to incorporate painting based on their experience and comfort level. We will draw inspiration from devotional practices across cultures, including memory jugs, Afro-diasporic altar traditions, and the assemblages of Betye Saar. While informed by these traditions, embellishments will be intuitive and personal to each maker. We will also explore how acts of remembrance and reverence may preserve overlooked histories and connect personal experiences of grief to broader social and political consciousness. No prior art experience is required. Participants should bring a photograph of their chosen subject and are welcome to bring small, meaningful objects to incorporate into their frames. __ S. Yemisi Adeyemo (she/they) is a politically engaged interdisciplinary artist working across assemblage, painting, and sculpture. Using found materials recovered from urban public space, she creates layered devotional objects that move between altarpiece and artifact. Her work examines material conditions across global and domestic contexts, tracing the implications of (neo)imperialism through instances of tragedy, survival, and rebellion. Positioning grief as a site of personal and ideological revelation, her work hopes to shift individualized mourning toward collective critical resistance. Yemisi received a BFA in Painting from RISD and an MFA in Visual Art from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. She was a 2025-2026 NXTHVN Studio Art Fellow and a 2021 BRIClab Contemporary Arts Resident. She has taught visual art in an array contexts and communities, including Rutgers University, and The Bronx Museum of The Arts. Her work has been featured in Hyperallergic, New American Paintings, Liverpool University Press’ Sculpture Journal, Art Cube, and Forbes, where she was recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Art & Style list in 2025.