Rhonda Gray

Rhonda Gray is an award-winning visual artist, muralist, and history professor. She is a Resident Artist at the Chicago Art Department and a recent Illinois Arts Council and DCASE grantee. Her mixed media painting assemblage and sculptural art is rooted in a passion for natural healing, African diasporic womanhood, and reconciling the complexities of visibility and value. In her work, she is compelled to infuse various vintage and futuristic aesthetics, creating a visual nexus that reflects self-perception, sacred space, and radical imagination while deconstructing the dominant narrative surrounding race and gender.

In a span of 20 years, her art can be found in collections globally and has been exhibited in galleries and museums nationally. In 2018, her paintings and writings were published in the academic book, Michelle Obama’s Impact on African American Women and Girls. Her work can be seen in the featured film “Southside With You” which chronicles Barack and Michelle Obama’s first date. Rhonda is an adjunct professor of history at Roosevelt University and National Louis University.