Lehna Huie is a multi-disciplinary artist and cultural worker of Jamaican heritage b. NYC 1988. Extending beyond monolithic perspectives, Lehna is committed to uplifting stories of Black identity as a means to explore international connections among the Pan African and Caribbean Diasporas. Her work concentrates on themes such as the soul, migration, non-linear time and remembrance as a means to recover untold narratives of those whose lived experiences have been erased and distorted by the chronicles of colonialism. Huies works are reflected through weaving multiple visual art forms as cultural vignettes rooted in an archival practice. Varying in scale, medium and surface, Lehna draws together clusters of accumulated art pieces, personal and found objects by using non-traditional approaches to representational portraiture.
Huie honors her heritage through interdisciplinary research methods. Reflecting on facets of her identity, she creates works on surfaces such as painting, wood, canvas and fills wall space using a patchwork approach to accompany her tactile tapestry-like paintings. Huie layers cut up mural scraps, bright patterned textiles and materials, often including video projections and soundscapes.
Her installation environments serve as both living shrines and alternative historical documents of the memory recovered in untold stories. Through using non-traditional approaches to representational portraiture, Huie honors her relatives and ancestral guides through the possibilities of space and dimension. A long-time arts educator, Huie is deeply committed to the fusion of arts and social change as a path to liberation.