Visual Art – Atlanta
Diana Imani is a local artist from Southwest Atlanta. Her body of work explores a variety of different concepts related to culture and the black experience. Most notably it investigates, the raw form, experience, and expression of Black Women. Her work has evolved since the start of her exploration. From her free flowing and abstract forms in her earlier works to her more realistic style of painting, she has always relied heavily on her use of medium, line, and color theory to deliver her message. In her manifesto she states, “I do not paint to win the approval of others, or for people to praise me about my work being visually appealing”. She paints her experiences and the experiences of those around her. She paints a feeling. She paints to express the things that can not otherwise be described with words. She uses her art to speak with her heart when her tongue is stricken silent. She believes that art is not something to be sealed in a case and gawked at by people who can simply “afford” it. But that, it is a raw sentiment that should be interacted with, worked with, and analyzed in context. Not in a manner so far removed from its original element that it becomes overanalyzed, distorted, and appropriated to represent the ideas of mainstream culture.