KIBIBI AJANKU
ARTIST
Ancient while at the same time new-world and always changing. Ajanku’s muscle as a visual artist spans from contemporary fine art to village inspired craft, and the performance. Her artistry is layered with… and entrenched in… indigenous folkways.
INNOVATOR
Through the melding of ancient practices and
Afro-futurism, Kibibi creates new ways for people to connect with the African Diaspora and themselves.
MEET THE ARTIST
Kibibi Ajanku Baltimore, MD
Kibibi Ajanku attended Morgan State University, received an MFA in Curatorial Practice from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA); and currently, Ajanku is an Educator in Coppin State University Fine Arts Department and the MICA Fibers Department. Ajanku believes that when presented properly, art is the perfect vehicle to move forward into greater intercultural awareness for the global community.
Kibibi Ajanku makes and presents ethnically charged art. Her passion embodies the thrust of the African Diaspora. Kibibi’s creativity is the ongoing and ever evolving effort of her life journey. Her work is eclectic and innovative. It is ancient while at the same time new-world and always changing. Ajanku’s muscle as a visual artist spans from contemporary fine art to village inspired craft, and the performance. Her artistry is layered with… and entrenched in… indigenous folkways. Her work embodies research, identity, and the gathering of elements of African retention, in hopes of evoking intuitive memories that reach back into ancestral histories and stories that impact the here and the now.
Kibibi Ajanku’s passion for art began early. She was nurtured by “grandma’s hands” as she sat at the knees of a quilt making maternal grandmother and soon followed on the heels of fashion forward seamstress aunties. This fueled an artistic journey as an exploration and execution of an indigenous aesthetic. Ajanku is empowered by international training and workshops: adire fabric design in Osogbo, Nigeria; tapestries in Theis, Senegal; adinkra fabric printing and kente weaving in Kumasi, Ghana; mud cloth acquisitions from the Mali railway; embroidery work in Medina, Senegal; and Orisha attire in Havana, Cuba. Ajanku has traveled the African diaspora to study, teach, and perform with many textile masters. Ajanku believes that when presented properly, art is the perfect vehicle to move forward into greater intercultural awareness for the global community.
Kibibi has continued her journey as an artist through her work as a curator, by creating new and innovative ways to present the past, present, and future of the Black diaspora. She uses this same lens to curate arts-based equity, diversity, and inclusion programming through her work as an educator within universities and arts organizations throughout Baltimore. Kibibi’s work has and continues to uplift and empower Black artists and increase intercultural understanding within the city of Baltimore and around the world.
Her curatorial work is rooted in the belief that art is a powerful tool for social change. As the Curator for the Bearman Gallery, located in the Fredrick Douglass-Isaac Myers Museum in Baltimore, MD, she presents innovative exhibitions and programming that inspire and challenge audiences to think deeply about important issues. She is passionate about uncovering marginalized voices and uplifting artistic excellence typically left out of mainstream art spaces.
​
Her work also reflects extensive study on the impact of African world history and legacy through an African American contemporary art lens. Ajanku has traveled the African Diaspora to study, teach, perform, and exhibit with many masters, and is the Founding Mother of the Baltimore-based Sankofa Dance Theater, a group that continues to share joyous spirit by bringing movement and rhythm together in layered, interlocking rhythmic patterns.
Kibibi believes that when presented properly, art is the perfect vehicle to inspire authentic dialogue in an effort to move forward into greater intercultural awareness for the global community. As a result, her curatorial projects encompass an ever-growing body of exploratory research, image-making, exhibition-making. She often uses the exhibition space to emphasize relationships between historical occurrences and lived history.
Kibibi Ajanku attended Morgan State University and received her MFA in Curatorial Practice from Maryland Institute College of Art. She is the Curator for the Bearman Gallery, located in the Fredrick Douglass-Isaac Myers Museum in Baltimore, MD.​
EXHIBITIONS
Featuring The Work Of Kibibi Ajanku
