Mekia Machine is a Jamaican-born artist who was raised in the USA for much of her life; she has a multidisciplinary practice that ranges across painting, sound, music and performance.

 

Her work investigates aesthetic and societal norms through conceptions of time, identity, memory, and place, specifically in cultures where loss and trauma is a substantial part of daily life.

 

In addition to exhibiting, Machine was one of the winners of This Art is Your Art, 2016 with Artsy, The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and the White House Historical Association, for her short film on painting artist Alma Thomas’s portrait which was part of a 4-month installation and she was invited to join First Lady Michelle Obama at the Celebration of 20th Century Art in the White House and was awarded the fully funded Liquitex Just Imagine Residency in 2021.

 

Mekia graduated from Columbia University with a BA in Visual Arts (2019), and is currently living and working in Harlem, New York City, with her two daughters Taylor and Nola.