Akinsanya Kambon: Soul Sessions

Soul Sessions is the first survey exhibition in New York dedicated to artist, educator, and organizer Akinsanya Kambon, bringing together over ninety of his intricately crafted figurative ceramics, made between the 1970s and the present.

The exhibition borrows its title from weekly gatherings organized by Black Marines during the Vietnam War, where Kambon served as an infantryman and combat illustrator. These “soul sessions” became spaces of learning—fostering solidarity, education, and community building. The exhibition expands on this concept to highlight the pedagogical dimensions of Kambon’s practice, emphasizing his sustained engagement with historical events and ideas that shape liberatory movements—particularly Black resistance to colonialism and slavery.

In the exhibition, seven sessions are organized around recurring themes in Kambon’s practice: Pre-colonial and Primordial Time explores African philosophies, cosmologies, and spiritual practices; Thrones of Resistance features kings, queens, priests, and priestesses (Obas, Pharaohs, and Mais) who led their people through adversity, particularly during early colonial encounters; The Middle Passage addresses the forced displacement and transatlantic transportation of enslaved Africans; Captivity and Oppression depicts the violence and dehumanization of slavery in the United States through series such as Strange Fruit; Rebellion and Uprising highlights the artist’s ongoing Tools of Resistance series and other depictions of revolt and defiance; War and Imperialism reflects on the artist’s critiques of imperial power, informed by his experience of combat; and Reverence and Remembrance focuses on spiritual practices of the African diaspora, including ancestor worship, oral traditions, and the transmission of knowledge.

Together, these sessions articulate Kambon’s lifelong commitment to the beliefs, histories, and struggles of the oppressed, and to a pedagogy rooted in remembrance, resistance, and empowerment. This exhibition surveys his technical mastery, formal inventiveness, and profound understanding of the aesthetic, spiritual, and political dimensions of his subject matter, while tracing how his life and work are interwoven with the contemporary history of the United States.

Soul Sessions continues as a collaboration with the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA), where a selection of works on paper, paintings, wall plaques, and archival materials expand Kambon’s multidisciplinary practice and bring forward stories of oppression, resistance, and spirituality. The E and F MTA lines can be used to travel between SculptureCenter and CARA.

Akinsanya Kambon: Soul Sessions is organized by SculptureCenter and the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA). The presentation at SculptureCenter is curated by Sohrab Mohebbi, Director, and Jovanna Venegas, Curator, with Sharon Liu, Asymmetry Curatorial Fellow. The presentation at CARA is curated by Manuela Moscoso, Executive and Artistic Director, with curatorial support from Marian Chudnovsky, Curatorial Assistant.

Akinsanya Kambon (b. 1946, Sacramento, CA) has worked in clay for almost four decades, creating vessels, figures, and wall plaques. These ceramics visualize narratives of the Black diaspora, including African histories, mythologies, and stories of violence and revolution from throughout Africa and the Americas. From 1966 to 1968, Kambon served in Vietnam with the U.S. Marine Corps as a combat illustrator and infantryman and was awarded several Purple Hearts for his bravery. Upon his return, he joined the Sacramento chapter of the Black Panther Party. As Lieutenant of Culture, he worked on the layout and illustrations for The Black Panther newspaper. Kambon earned a BA and an MA from California State University, Fresno. He worked as a professor of art at the California State University, Long Beach for 30 years and led free youth art programs devoted to African, Indigenous, and Latino culture out of his Long Beach studio. Recent solo exhibitions include Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles (2025); Jack Shainman Gallery, New York (2022); Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento (2016). Recent group exhibitions were at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2023); Oakland Museum of California, Oakland (2016); and Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland (2016). In 2023, Kambon received the Mohn Award for Artistic Excellence from the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.