Photo by Trenyce Tong

Jayna Dias is a Senegalese-American artist currently based in Los Angeles. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Art with a minor in Culture, Media and Entertainment at the University of Southern California in 2024.

By way of drawing, painting and performance, Dias' work investigates themes of misogynoir, cultural hybridity and fetishization. Interested in the complexities of subordination, resistance, desire and reclamation, her work does not seek to establish binaries, but instead represent both the power structures that manipulate bodies and the resilience from those disproportionately affected by them. 

Vivid palettes, dimensional texture and visceral imagery are used in her practice to entice viewers; forcing them to engage with the underrepresented themes she depicts. Her work, above all, is about visibility.


Video podcast on The Lands of Art and Earth with host, Shivani Gupta

Education 

2024        BA in Art and Minor in Culture, Media and Entertainment, University of Southern California

Exhibitions

2024        Clarity & Opacity, Helen Lindhurst Fine Arts Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2023        The Black Experience (Partnered Exhibition), Gayle and Ed Roski Fine Arts Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 

Group Exhibitions

2024 Ancestral Archives, Sovern, Los Angeles, CA

2024        Whispers From the Corner of My Eye, Palazzo Mora, Venice, Italy

2024        Annual Student Exhibition, Fisher Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

2023        Annual Student Exhibition, Fisher Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

2023        Operation Exhibition, Los Angeles, CA

2022        Quiet Exhibition, Los Angeles, CA

2022        Annual Student Exhibition, Fisher Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

Awards

2024     Discovery Scholar Distinction

2024     Renaissance Scholar Distinction

2023-24   Macomber Travel Grant 

2021-24   Roski Talent Scholarship

Press/Publications