Driftwood: Sometimes I Think Of Home July - August 2026
Troy, New York
DriftddddddergeddergergDrD erfgwrginlThis pop-up show shared various pieces of artwork from my career from the year 2018 to 2026. This show was my first solo in my home region, the capital region of NY. I was able to share a few pieces made during my time at my residency at Collar Works. It is an inquiry into: What is home? Where is home and how do I get there? During my residency with Collar Works I discovered that within abstraction I find that I question my “enoughness”. Home in the capital region feels different now. It almost doesn’t exist. Things are different, displaced, too small, too far and fading.
The Weight of Tomorrow April - 2025
Baltimore, Maryland
In this series of paintings, The Weight of Tomorrow, omit’s the colour of Black skin to confront the audience with their assumptions. This choice is an act of both challenge and reflection, urging the audience to examine their biases while addressing how Black identity is often objectified or erased from the perspective of others. By removing the emphasis on skin tone, I push the focus toward the dialogue between memory, identity, and presence.
While interrogating beauty within nostalgia and its function within this body of work the experience of navigating loss is at the heart of this series. Creating a sense of longing for a past while questioning whose past is remembered, and whose is erased. My paintings embody this collision of memory, loss, and identity, combining fragmented histories with the power of presence. Through this exploration, I encourage deeper reflection on how Blackness is perceived and misrepresented. The weight of tomorrow becomes a powerful theme, as I explore the complexities of what lies ahead for Black identity.
Layers of Absence September - 2024
Photos by: Kristoferheng
Baltimore, Maryland
Layers of Absence, explores the emotional and cultural complexities of grief, identity, and memory, with a particular focus on the absence left by loss. Through large-scale paintings and sculptural works, this exhibition offers an intimate dialogue on the ways personal and collective histories intersect and how they shape our understanding of the self.
The exhibition works, such as “One Dozen”, “Brandon Hill”, and “To What End?”, alongside new pieces that continue to examine the weight of what is left behind. These works navigate the space between visibility and erasure, with abstract forms and textured surfaces that evoke both the presence and absence of loved ones, histories, and cultural legacies.
At the heart of Layers of Absence is an inquiry into how grief can simultaneously fragment and unite, how identity is constructed through both the tangible and the intangible, and how these experiences reverberate across time and space. Drawing inspiration from storytelling traditions of the African diaspora, the exhibition also considers the narratives that go untold, the memories that remain unspoken, and the objects that bear witness to the silences.
In Layers of Absence, grief becomes more than a personal emotion—becomes a material presence, shaping and informing the art itself. Through abstract paintings and cultural forms, this exhibition invites viewers to reflect on their own experiences of loss and the spaces that remain in its weight.
Windows October - 2021
Albany, New York
Focusing on community and intimacy Jahniah empties the Smallbany Gallery floor to critique and deconstruct personal and collective lived experiences in contemporary “America”. Exploring across mediums, Windows focuses on the pain and reaction of the capital region community towards the spike of violence that occurred throughout the United States summer of 2020 in light of George Floyd’s death. Windows marks the point of Kum’s career where themes around justice and freedom develop in her practice.