New Works by Preston Sampson,
Nicolas Coleman, and James Terrell

Preston Sampson is a colorist whose use of mediums include canvas, mixed media, pulp painting, encaustics and printmaking. His work has found expression with audiences domestically as well as abroad, in public, private, corporate and institutional collections and exhibitions. "I have depicted historical and contemporary narratives meant both to inspire and shed light on the beauty of African American culture. My work is inspired by tales of my ancestors, especially those of Black men, often heroic in content and scale”. Sampson is a graduate of the University of Maryland where he developed career long relationships with Dr. David Driskell and Sam Gilliam.

His work can be seen in the collections at Yale University, the Library of Congress, National Museum of African American Music, University of Colorado, The David Driskell Center at University of Maryland, University of Alabama, the Dallas Museum of African American Art, the Georgia State Museum, the Spirit Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, and the Museo Della Carta della Filigrana in Fabriano Italy.

Nicolas Lambelet Coleman is a painter based in New York. His work focuses on portraiture, with an emphasis on self-portraiture. "From the time I began painting and drawing, I have made self-portraits. As my style, technique, and medium change, the one constant has been my effort to reimagine my image through my art. It has been my way of understanding my place in the cultures, spaces, and situations that I travel through. Growing up in the South to a blended Black and Swiss family, much of my identity was constructed through a process of self-invention to which my art was central," says Coleman. More broadly, his work aims to be a subversion of the boundaries that we have constructed around identity and the tribal nature of what it means to be human. Nicolas is originally from North Carolina and studied Visual Arts and Political Science at Duke University.

James Terrell is a native Washingtonian who was reared in Ward 7. His parents are Rev. Dr. James E. Terrell, Pastor of historic Second Baptist Church of Washington D.C. and Retired Superior Court Associate Judge Mary A. Terrell of the Superior Court of Washington D.C. He received his high school diploma from Gonzaga College High School in Washington D.C. He received the Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1999 from Howard University, Master of Fine Arts in 2002 from Parsons School of Design in New York City and the Master of Divinity Degree from the Union Theological Seminary in New York City with a concentration on Theology and the Fine Arts in 2006. While attending Union Theological Seminary, he pursued Fine Arts painting elective courses at Columbia University. Terrell has exhibited his work all over the country and had multiple solo shows including at museums.