FAITH RINGGOLD

b. 1930

Harlem, New York

Mixed media artist, painter

Part painter, part sculptor, part quilter, part illustrator, part writer, part superhero.

Faith Ringgold’s first foray into quilting was for a 1983 exhibition, “The Artist and the Quilt.” Here, she displayed everyday people in her Harlem community. But before the quilts, Ringgold was creating large-scale paintings, sculptures, and masks that patched together Black narratives.

Ringgold is an author, publishing books like Tar Beach (1991) and Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky (1992).