Papay Solomon (b. 1993, Guinea) marshals the language of portraiture to complexify African narratives beyond dominant discourses. As simultaneously African and American, Solomon’s practice extends what it means to be an African in America and how one’s “authentic” Africanness” can be expressed and maintained across generational and continental divides. Solomon’s work reflects both his formative experiences in United Nations refugee camps and his life after relocating with his family to the United States at the age of 14. Solomon therefore defines home as neither fixed or necessarily a structure, rather a way of being in the world.
