Bio
Zsudayka Nzinga is a multidisciplinary fine artist, curator, and educator from Aurora, CO, who lives in Washington, DC. Her research-based practices explore American history and textile labor's impact on Black life through various dying and printmaking methods in collaged tapestries.
Nzinga began her career as a spoken word artist before starting an art festival in Aurora, CO. She taught art for over 20 years in various classroom styles from prek-12th grade, created art programs for nonprofits, and most recently created and implemented several educator training around neuroaesthetics and classroom practices. She obtained her MFA in painting from MICA in 2025.
Nzinga’s artwork has been featured in museums such as The Phillips Collection, Banneker Douglas Museum, PG African American History Museum and the National Liberty Museum. She has permanent works installed with the National Institute of Health and the National Civil Rights Museum. She has several works at the Cote D’Ivore United States Embassy and was voted one of the best in show at the AAKA Fair in Paris in 2024. Nzinga is an active fruit and vegetable farmer and community advocate for the arts in her spare time. She is a proud mother of 3 children and wife to artist, James Stephen Terrell.
Artist Statement
I am a multi-disciplinary mixed media artist, educator and curator. I am a collage artist with an interest in materiality of paper, fabric and associated textiles. My practice includes graphic design, sewing, dying techniques and print making alongside acrylic painting. I enjoy the act of taking things apart and finding the new ways they come together to tell a story. My design aesthetic leans into maximalism and finding vibration between the colors and patterns of fabric and paper used in my collages. I have an interest in depicting interior design and the ways that homes are reflected throughout history to communicate many things.
Many of my pieces are rooted in a research practice. I am an avid fan of American history and lean into depicting mostly women in the Black American experience. My research functions as the back narrative for the images I choose to depict and the small details that may be hidden within. I consider my work cultural social anthropology, as I am documenting from within the community that I am studying to communicate the lived experience of American Descendants of the system of slavery.
I am a self-taught artist. I started out sewing with my mother, a fifth-generation seamstress in elementary school. I learned quilt making, how to make clothes, weaving and the historical significance of creating and collecting art to Black Americans. Our home and other homes we visited utilized Afro Bohemian decor with artwork, masks, statues, plants and things we find reverent in our culture. I include these experiences of interior design in my work and play with reoccurring historical themes blending Victorian and American fashion and African design.
I taught myself how to paint first in oil, before transitioning into acrylic in 2015. My focus was always portraiture and I moved toward realism before beginning to cube my portraits and experiment with abstracting them using black line and stitch patterns in marker and by sewing machine. I got into collage and chigiri to mimic quilt designs but with a softness different from cut fabric. I started weaving hair onto my figures and that led to the marriage of all of my practices.
I enjoy creating large scale multimedia pieces on canvas. I sometimes stretch my canvases and build decorative frames around them and some of my pieces hang as loose tapestries. I approach each figure and element like a piece of a quilt. I’ve begun doing more multi layered work quilt stitchin on elements of the iece and lettin the ortraiture stand on its own and exlorin the
textures the paper and fabric create with the paint. When there’s paintings within the paintings I freehand with oil bar and ink and layer collage. I am fascinated by color theory and the cultural impact of mixing color and design.
As a curator my focus has been on Black American art both historically and modern/contemporary. I’m interested in assessing the narratives emerging from the experience of Black Americans as we define our culture and identity and gain more opportunities to engage our complex lineage and history. I have been studying our use of color and pattern, the influence of Black artist groups on the art market, and the segregation of the fine art community and how Black spaces have continued to provide spaces for artists to thrive and collectors. I lean toward portraiture in my curatorial practice as well but appreciate abstracts or still lives with powerful narratives on identity.
Press
For additional press, podcasts and blogs please download EPK above
East of the River Magazine (Cover Story)
Images by Mariah Miranda Photography
