Akinsanya Kambon: Soul Sessions

In a two-venue collaboration, the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) and SculptureCenter present the first survey exhibition in New York City of artist, educator, and organizer Akinsanya Kambon (b. 1946, Sacramento, CA) whose work explores Black resistance, cultural memory, and liberation. Drawing on the respective curatorial missions of SculptureCenter and CARA, this career-spanning exhibition— Soul Sessions —traces Akinsanya Kambon's decades-long practice through ceramics, paintings, drawings, and archival materials. Deeply informed by Kambon's formal art training and political education, which includes serving as a Marine Corps infantryman and combat illustrator as well as Lieutenant of Culture for the Sacramento Chapter of the Black Panther Party, and his co-founding of the Pan African Art Gallery with Susan Tama-sha Ross Kambon, the exhibition is a testament to the artist's technical excellence, formal inventiveness, and lifelong dedication to struggles for Pan-African liberation. Soul Sessions borrows its title from weekly gatherings organized by Black soldiers in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. These "soul sessions" became spaces of learning, fostering solidarity, education, and community building. The exhibition expands on this concept to highlight the pedagogical dimensions of Kambon's practice, emphasizing his sustained engagement with historical events and ideas that shape liberatory movements—particularly Black resistance to colonialism and slavery.