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On an early afternoon in Koreatown, Kofi Siriboe and two of his friends are meticulously balancing four small paintings against a plain white gallery wall.
“That is cold,” says Siriboe as he takes a step back to analyze the arrangement from afar through his black-tinted Loewe sunglasses. “I feel like walking into the space and seeing that is crazy,” adds the model, entrepreneur and actor who’s perhaps best known for his work on OWN’s “Queen Sugar” and the highest-grossing comedy of 2017, “Girls Trip.”
As Ava DuVernay’s series comes to a close, below-the-line crew members reflect on the life-changing experience — one they hope isn’t a ‘unicorn.’
“It’s a photo op moment, I’m telling you,” one of the men reassures him. Several more minutes pass and three more people enter the room to help determine the best way to display the grid of paintings by Jessica “J Hand” Strahan onto the wall.
It’s installation day for “Black in Every Color, Art in Every Form,” the two-city art exhibition between L.A. and New Orleans that Siriboe is co-curating with three other creatives, and his team is busy preparing for a VIP opening night, which is in less than 30 hours. The showcase, celebrating Black artistry across mediums through installations, photography, sculpture and more, will be on display from Friday through Sunday during Frieze L.A. at the Line Hotel in Koreatown.
Among the 27 people featured are L.A.-based artists JOJO ABOT, Autumn Breon and Delaney George, as well as Láolú Senbanjo of New York and New Orleans’ Langston Allston. The three-day event will also feature a panel discussion on Friday with Senbanjo, Lisane Basquiat, Patrisse Cullors and Dee Kerrison.
Solange’s “F.U.B.U.” is fittingly playing over the sound system, engineers are thumping nails into the walls and artists are sprinkling in and out of the space to drop off their artwork that will be featured in the show.
Much like his character Creshawn, a passionate fashion designer who is ferociously committed to authenticity on the series “Insecure,” Siriboe floats confidently around the room even in the midst of an unexpected schedule change that cuts their installation time. It’s hard to believe that this is his first time co-curating an art exhibition in his L.A. hometown. He’s smiling — showing off a bedazzled silver grill in his mouth — and goofing around with his team. His calm demeanor seems to energize the room despite the potentially stressful situation.
“Being able to put on the producer hat and be able to curate spaces and curate space for other artists, that’s the long goal … that’s what I want to grow old doing,” says Siriboe, who most recently starred in the final season of Prime Video’s “Harlem.” He’s celebrating his 31st birthday next week. This exhibition and his latest creative endeavor, Tola, feel like they are going to “set the tone for the next decade,” he says.
The Other Los Angeles
It’s an appropriate moment for “Black in Every Color, Art in Every Form,” which explores themes of movement and migration, to arrive in L.A. The show debuted in New Orleans during Super Bowl LIX weekend — where Compton native and rap superstar Kendrick Lamar performed the most-watched halftime show in history — at Tola, an intimate creative residency space and incubator designed for Black artists that Siriboe launched the same week. Roughly 1,200 people showed up for the three-day event, which also featured a mural installation by Allston. The mural was commissioned by Paramount Pictures on Bayou Road, the oldest street in New Orleans, as an extension of the exhibition at Tola.
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Siriboe, who grew up in the Ladera neighborhood of L.A., moved to New Orleans nearly 10 years ago when he started working on “Queen Sugar,” and decided to stay after falling in love with the city’s rich culture and art scene, which he folded himself into seamlessly.
“A lot of my cast mates, when we wrapped, they went back to New York. They went back to L.A.,” he says, “but for me, I was like a college student so I didn’t really have a reason to go back.”
In 2021, he purchased a historic, Greek Revival home built in 1847 that was equipped with a recording studio, three bedrooms, a pool and a tranquil backyard with the intent of turning it into a shared space. He didn’t have a clear vision on what he wanted to do with the home at first, but after having several conversations with God, he says, he decided to transform the house into what is now known as Tola, which stands for “The Other L.A.” The title represents his deep appreciation for his hometown and for the city that raised — and in many ways molded — him in his 20s. Through Tola, he plans to create a residency program that will host and support Black artists from around the globe.
When he speaks about his vision for Tola, he often refers back to his spirituality: “My prayer is that every single person that walks through those doors leaves with a little bit more connection to spirit, because they already have the spirit,” Siriboe says. “But I want it to reactivate, to regenerate. I want something new to either be released or be received. I want it to be a space of regeneration, of rest, of creativity.”
Part of Siriboe’s mission for Tola is to also bring more exposure to the Black art community in New Orleans.
“I think Tola is unique because of what [Siriboe] offers is access to an industry that in so many ways is always challenging for Black artists to get access in the art world,” says Pro$per Jone$, a multidisciplinary artist and New Orleans native. He co-curated one of the exhibitions, the Tola experience, for the L.A. showcase, which features a few of his black-and-white photographs. “Tola could catapult artists to higher heights.”
A migration west
Siriboe wanted to explore the theme of migration at the exhibition because of its historical significance, he says. Black Southerners began migrating to California in 1927 following the year’s great flood, which grew to a mass migration from the 1930s to 1960. Siriboe’s own migration journey includes moving from L.A. to the South in 2016, then visiting his parents’ hometowns in Ghana for the first time that same year.
“That was my year of return and I realized, ‘Damn, New Orleans is the most African city in America,’” he says. “Just like the lawlessness and I say that with love. The way the people exist, the chemistry of the culture and the city [and] the freedom. You’ll see Black men and kids on horses in the middle of the street in the second lines and the celebrations, so it reminded of something that I’ve never experienced, but it felt like I knew it.”
To a casual fan, his endeavor into the fine art world may appear a surprising pivot. But for Siriboe, Tola is just another extension of his creativity.
“I see it all as expression,” says Siriboe, who describes himself as a “multi-passionate” artist who’s expressed his interests through various mediums including acting, directing, making music, modeling and launching a production company and clothing brand.
He adds, “I think storytelling and translating spirit and expression is my passion in any form.”
The moment, the movement
After meeting Josiah David Jones of L.A.-based art agency Valence Projects last year at one of his “Black in Every Color” events — an international Black exhibition series that takes place in nontraditional spaces — Siriboe asked how he could get involved through his Tola initiative. With the help of Nakeyta Moore, founder of ARTLOUDLA, they decided to co-curate the crossover showcase called “Black in Every Color, Art in Every Form.”
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It features two exhibitions: “The Migration,” which showcases artists from New Orleans and L.A. as an ode to Tola (co-curated by Siriboe and Pro$per Jone$). The presentation includes paintings, photography and sculpture. And “The Movement,” the main show, which is a collection of installations, large-scale paintings, tapestries and sculpture made by artists who prioritize social impact and community through their work (co-curated by Siriboe, Jones and Moore). Among the headlining artists in “The Movement” are Adrienne Muse, Senbanjo, Breon, JOJO ABOT and Allston.
One of the standout pieces in the “Movement” exhibition is a light pink installation, made by Breon, where guests are invited to anonymously share a moment when a Black woman told them something that turned out to be true. In exchange for their confession, which can be made over a landline phone, they will receive a prophecy that is printed on a piece of paper.
“I was thinking of what can you do to physically engage with this idea of reaching back and pulling what you need in order to get what you deserve and what your birthright is,” Breon says about how she interpreted the exhibition theme. “And I just thought about pulling from our intuition and honoring that as essential for moving forward and for continuing our motion.”
Another memorable piece at the showcase is a large scale painting by Allston, a Chicago-born, New Orleans-based artist, which depicts two people in a row boat crossing rocky waters with the words “The River Carried Me to You” written along the top. The painting sits in “The Migration” room but serves as the bridge between both exhibitions.
Through all of the artwork that is displayed, Jones says their intention was to first and foremost honor and uplift Black artists.
“What we’re doing is really staking claim to the moment and the movement of Black art right now,” says Jones, who’s also hosted exhibitions in Tokyo, London and New York. “We have been able to curate some of the most socially impactful artists that I know who are working all across the world.”
A piece that Siriboe says he feels most connected to is a painting called “Onward” by New Orleans artist JaTaiRee Hudson Jr. It portrays three Black hands that look like they are walking or dancing, and it’s the only piece that was created specifically for the theme of the exhibition, Siriboe says.
“It kind of feels like gang signs. It looks like L.A.,” Siriboe says as he admires the painting. He takes a brief pause to collect his thoughts. It’s apparent that he is both a fan and a student in this field.
“It feels like us. To be able to represent so much just with your hands is pretty powerful.”
“Black in Every Color, Art in Every Form” will be on display from Friday, Feb. 21, through Sunday, Feb. 23, at the Line Hotel in Koreatown. General admission is free, but donations will be suggested at the door. Proceeds will go toward continuing the “Black in Every Color” series, supporting Tola’s artist residency program and aiding L.A. fire relief efforts.
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