Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the location of the gallery that represents the artist.
Richmond-based artist Tiffany Conway had barely unpacked her bags from a trip to Italy in October when she spoke to Richmondside about a milestone she never expected to reach: Exhibiting her work at the world-renowned Florence Biennale. Out of 600 artists from 78 countries, Conway was the only Black woman representing the United States — and one of just six Black artists at the entire international show.
“This was not on my radar at all,” Conway told Richmondside from her Oakland-based studio, noting that someone from the Biennale’s council encouraged her to apply. “It was just an exploration of everything — sculpture, photography, painting, digital art, installation, performance art, you name it. It was really, really cool.”
Conway is known for her vibrant and expressive paintings that pay tribute to the African diaspora. Her work, which has earned multiple awards, is a form of “emotional investigation,” she said. It’s meant to authentically reflect the Black experience and evoke joy.
“I come to my practice with what I feel like is an assignment to remind us of who we are on the inside and not as the world perceives us to be,” Conway said. “I do this for the people who look like me. If you find kinship in that, wonderful.”
“And if you don’t get it, I don’t really care,” Conway said, giggling.
Meet Your Neighbor: Richmond artist Tiffany Conway
Who: Tiffany Conway
Neighborhood: East Richmond
Resident for: 20+ years. Conway was born and raised in Richmond, attended De Anza High School and then moved around the Bay Area before moving back to Richmond in 2015.
She said: “The world is starting to catch on to art that’s made by Black people that explores our stories and our identity, so it’s not new to us. But it might be new to the world, and you still experience a little resistance, but it kind of comes with the territory.”
Meet the artist: Conway takes commissions and hosts open studio events. To learn more visit https://www.tiffanyconway.com/.
Richmond is home to 40+ distinct neighborhoods, a fact that some residents have told us makes them feel disconnected to the city as a whole. This story is part of an occasional series to help Richmonders get to know their neighborhoods. Know someone we should feature? Email hello@richmondside.org.
Conway’s art evokes Africa’s myriad cultures
Each brush stroke, choice of color and detail in Conway’s paintings is intentional. Her colors are bold and visually striking, evoking Africa’s myriad cultures which are colorful and maximalistic.
Conway breaks down her bodies of work through different motifs designed to represent different eras of her life.
During the pandemic, Conway painted a series called “Ethereal Hue” where she used a limited, mostly blue palette intended to be soothing, but also to symbolize the limitation of the lockdown orders.
“I was making a lot of work organically, but I was just kind of envisioning a world where the Black experience was not immediately resisted. So that’s why there’s no traditional skin tones,” Conway said. “I’m using blue to soothe and to calm, but also to invite you into our experience without feeling any hesitation.”
During that time, particularly when the Black Lives Matters protests erupted throughout the country, Conway’s art shifted. She said the way Black men were perceived by society in general contradicted her own experiences with the Black men in her life — her father, friends, neighbors, cousins, and now husband.
So, she painted a series dedicated to reflecting how they have shown up in her life, called “Black love and daylight: a devotion to Black men.”
The collection has portraits of men with different skin tones set behind a “Bay Area blue” sky, as Conway called it. One man is depicted with flowers in his hair and mouth and all around him, his hair a bright vermillion — an orange red shade used historically in paintings of important people or on government buildings, which is why she chose to use it.
“I really wanted to just kind of explore a different skin tone of blackness,” Conway said. “I feel like in every family, we got at least one red, one uncle red, one cousin red, you know. So I just wanted to make sure that I documented him right.”
Another painting shows a man with a little boy on his shoulders, with the same blue sky and rolling green hills behind him. Conway said she made the background obscure on purpose because she wanted it to resonate with everyone.
“I’m thinking about the energy and the spirit of the Bay Area. We’re nature babies. We like to be out in the grass browning. We like to hike. We like to be near water. Our beautiful, beautiful blue skies, our sun rises, our sunsets,” Conway said. “So for me, it’s more so about the energy, as opposed to like documenting a particular place.”
“Grounding it in a city, or grounding it to a specific location takes the imagination away,” Conway continued. “But the spirit of California is in my work for sure.”
A desire to see Richmond as an arts hub
Conway is a Bay Area girl. She was raised in Richmond, lived in several different Bay Area cities like Oakland and San Francisco, before eventually moving back to her hometown 10 years ago. She is a graduate from De Anza High School and said her family feels rooted in Richmond since they moved from San Francisco in the 60’s.
She said Richmond is the Bay Area’s best kept secret — from the beaches, the food to the growing arts community, such as the Richmond Art Center and the Visual Artists of Richmond, which hosts an annual open studio organized by local grassroots artists.
“I feel like now Richmond has the capability to be an arts hub, an arts-centered city,” Conway said. “But I think it needs some (additional) galleries. I think that’s kind of like the next elevation.”
Conway credits her parent’s collection of art, that reflects the Black experience, for inspiring her love for painting. And she credits the city of Richmond for helping propel her artwork into the public realm.
Conway said that when she was accepted into the biennale the community came together to cover the $10,000 cost of travel and shipping her paintings through a GoFundMe campaign, but also by buying her artwork.
“I’m a Richmond baby, so I had a fundraiser at The Factory Bar that did pretty well. I’m represented by (Rena Charles Gallery) up in Healdsburg, which is wine country. We did a fundraiser out there that went well,” Conway said. “And then my collectors really showed up. They really showed up and I was pleasantly surprised, especially toward the end, because I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to make it,’ and just all of a sudden, a flood of support came in.”
A favorite painting inspired by Pablo Picasso
Conway’s favorite painting is from her series capturing Black men. It is a piece called Museum Visit, inspired by Pablo Picasso’s Demoiselles De Leon.
“He was very heavily inspired by traditional African art and traditional African sculpture, which was reflected in that particular work … So in my own way, I kind of recreated it, and kind of took back that style,” Conway said. “And, as I continued to work on the piece, I started adding individual characters very organically.”
Her most recently completed body of work centers around female characters, called “Joy Jubilee.” The series explores the theme of joy and self-care, with each painting representing a lesson learned about maintaining happiness.
The artworks feature a lot of flowers as well as orange, pink, yellow and purple hues, to capture the ethereal beauty of Black women.
One of Conway’s more popular paintings is “No.” It’s one of her more tongue-in-cheek paintings, where the word “no” is featured throughout the image of a woman drinking coffee in her robe. The more one stares at the image, the more “no’s” appear.
“There’s the direct ‘no’ on her teacup. There’s the kind of soft ‘no’ which is exhibited in her wallpaper. There’s a little bit of a passive aggressive ‘no’ that’s exhibited in the fruit. And then there’s the ‘Hell no,’ which is like ‘I said no, like, don’t make me have to tell you again,’ ” Conway said. “And her hand is kind of covering it, but it says, ‘Hell Nah! Poems and soliloquies,’ because I’m thinking about all of the poetic ways we have to say no to people.”
Conway sees her art as being in one of two styles
Conway said her art can be broken into two styles. One is a more traditional style represented by real skin tones that have more narrative behind them. The other she calls her “alternative style,” which is more fun and playful and involves a lot of color blocking.
Her upcoming series, which is still in development and under wraps, will showcase her more alternative style. Conway calls it the Love Series, but withheld from saying more about it.
Instead she invites those interested to visit her studio, request commissions and connect with her online to be part of the Love series.
“The goal is to make art accessible in terms of doing portraits for people, and that’s typically not a part of my creative practice,” Conway said. “Portraiture is a great opportunity to capture someone’s spirit, especially someone you love, so I wanted to make that available to my community.”
Thank you for articles on interesting local artists.
I had to read this b/c I love that “Vermillion” painting, first saw it several years ago at a small Berkeley multi-artist exhibit. If I win the lottery I’ll try to buy it! Did not see the byline till the end. . . Rock On, Jadah, I hope you get to cover more art!