Helina Metaferia

American, born 1983

BiographyHelina Metaferia, born in Washington, DC to Ethiopian parents, is an interdisciplinary artist known for her compelling synthesis of documentary scholarship and social justice, coupled with her exploration of intersectional identities. Following her completion of BA in Fine Art – Painting at Morgan State University in 2005, Metaferia pursued further studies at Tufts University’s School of the Museum of Fine Arts, where she earned her MFA in Interdisciplinary Art in 2015. Renowned for her artistic versatility, Metaferia’s artistic practice spans a diverse range of media, including collage, assemblage, performance, video, textile, and social engagement.

Metaferia’s work is in institutional collections including the Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY; Sharjah Art Foundation, United Arab Emirates; and Kadist, San Francisco, CA and Paris, France.

Metaferia has had solo exhibitions and projects include RISD Art Museum (2022-2024); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (2022); New York University's The Gallatin Galleries, New York, NY (2021); Michigan State University's Scene Metrospace Gallery, East Lansing, MI (2019); and Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA (2017), and been featured in group exhibitions at ICA San Francisco (2023) and Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2019).

Supported by notable residencies including MacDowell, Yaddo, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, and MASS MoCA, Metaferia currently serves as a 2021-2023 artist-in-residence at Silver Art Projects at the World Trade Center in New York City. Her work has been critically acclaimed and featured in prominent publications such as The New York Times, Financial Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Artnet News, The Art Newspaper, and Hyperallergic.

Metaferia is an Assistant Professor at Brown University in the Visual Art department. She lives and works in New York City.

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