ABOUT THE ARTIST — DAWN N. MAYES

Artist. Vessel. Liberator of spaces.
 

Dawn N. Mayes is a self-taught abstract artist whose work transforms walls into declarations of identity, power, and ancestral memory. As a 2022 Resident Artist at the historic Karamu House, she deepened her practice of using art as both a mirror and a ritual—an invitation for viewers to come home to themselves.

Born of Equatorial Guinean heritage and African American Southern roots, Dawn carries a lineage of resilience, intuition, and spiritual knowing. Her hybrid style—recognizable forms fused with energetic linework and symbolic geometry—draws from Central African visual traditions and the survival wisdom passed down through the Southern Black experience.

With a background in architecture, Dawn sees the world through structure and story. She studies the way lines move, the way shadows speak, and the way environments shape emotion. This becomes the language of her work: bold, healing, ancestral.

Her pieces are not meant to simply be admired.
They are meant to be felt.

Dawn’s art invites conversation, introspection, and liberation. Each canvas asks the viewer to embrace their power, honor their roots, and step fully into their own truth. As her Wild Spirit Collection expands across the country, Dawn’s mission is clear:

To create art that remembers who we are — and helps us rise into who we are becoming.