Nikko Washington USA, b. 1993

In this painting, Nikko Washington presents The Old Maker, a traditional, African folkloric depiction of the creator of the universe, as a dancer. Behind the figure is a spider’s web. Inside the web lies Anansi, also known as Aunt Nancy, a trickster character popular in West African mythology. Anansi is known as the creator of the world, and is an intermediary between humans and the gods. Most commonly depicted as a spider with some human features, Anansi is known for tricking people, animals, and even the gods themselves by using their own ways of thinking against them. The dancer in this painting is striking a pose similar to one the artist used to see in a poster his sister had as a child for The Alvin Ailey dancers, an all-Black dance troupe founded in 1958. “Looking at that poster every day, I realized the power and athleticism in dance,” Washington says. As part of his effort to retell the stories of Black history, Washington saw the Alvin Ailey dancers as characters that could easily relate to cherubs, angels, and deities. “They point to my relationship with God,” Washington says.