James Okafor
Atlanta, GA
PaintingIllustration
James Okafor is a Nigerian-American painter and illustrator based in Atlanta, Georgia. His acrylic and gouache paintings draw from Igbo visual traditions, contemporary street culture, and the everyday rituals of the African diaspora in the American South. Okafor received his MFA from the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia and a BA in Visual Arts from Morehouse College. He has exhibited at the High Museum of Art, Hammonds House Museum, and Kavi Gupta Gallery. His work explores portraiture as a form of cultural documentation, centering Black joy, community, and intergenerational storytelling.
The Process
Background
Education
- 2021MFA, Painting and Drawing — University of Georgia, Athens, GA
- 2017BA, Visual Arts — Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA
Exhibitions
- 2024New Voices in Southern Art — High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
- 2023Homegoing — Hammonds House Museum, Atlanta, GA
Residencies
- 2022Artist in Residence — Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, ME
Awards
- 2023Emerging Artist Grant — Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA
