Abena Motaboli (she/her) is a Basotho – Ghanaian, educator, interdisciplinary artist, natural dyer, and writer based in Chicago – the unceded territories of the Three Fires Confederacy: Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi. She grew up in Lesotho, a landlocked country in Southern Africa, before moving to the U.S where she obtained her bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts at Columbia College Chicago and at L’institut Catholique de Paris in Paris, France. She is currently engaged with the Center For Humans and Nature as a Land Reciprocity Program Developer and in Land access research with the Kalliopeia Foundation. With a strong commitment to social and environmental justice work in the Chicago Land area and being an immigrant, her artwork explores themes of belonging, interconnectedness, and more. Central to her values is Ubuntu – our shared connection to land , each other, and this place we call home and she invites her audience to experience spaces to contemplate through installation, abstract work, or through vivid bright colors in mural work. She has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibits such as Confluence at Heaven Gallery – Chicago, The Other Art Fair Chicago, SOFA, Chicago, Bhavan Gallery – based in London, Woman Made Gallery – Chicago, DIFFA Pop-Up Gold Coast Gallery, and Aqua Art Miami to name a few. Her work is also placed in private collections throughout the U.S. Motaboli also has a few poems published with Northeastern Illinois University’s annual SEEDS Literary and Visual Arts Journal.
