About me
Helina Metaferia is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans collage, performance, video, sculpture, and social engagement. Drawing on archival research, embodied practices, and dialogical methods, she amplifies overlooked narratives of Black, femme, and immigrant identities. Her work interrogates systems of power and historical erasure, often using her own body and the bodies of collaborators to explore themes of citizenship, belonging, and resistance.Born to Ethiopian parents and based in New York City, Metaferia’s practice is rooted in both African diasporic traditions and contemporary political critique. She engages visual art as ritual, creating works that are at once conceptual and deeply personal. Her “By Way of Revolution” series, for example, honors the labor of BIPOC women activists through layered collage and participatory performance.Metaferia holds an MFA from Tufts University’s School of the Museum of Fine Arts and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, RISD Museum, Museum of African Diaspora, and the Sharjah Biennial, among others. It is held in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.Currently an Assistant Professor of Visual Art at Brown University, Metaferia continues to shape critical conversations around race, gender, and representation. Her work invites viewers to reckon with the complexities of American identity and the transformative power of collective memory.
