black Muslim artist - Nsenga Knight

Islamic Geometry & Contemporary Abstraction: Nsenga Knight at Perlman Museum

"Installation view of Nsenga Knight’s geometric wall drawings at the Perlman Teaching Museum."

Artist Nsenga Knight reflects on her inclusion in ‘The Manifest, The Hidden’ at Carleton College, exploring the intersection of geometry, Black archives, and Islamic ritual.

We Didn’t Destroy the Kaaba: Decentering Islamic Art

Circular Black and white oil paint text on vegetable parchment paper. by Nsenga Knight, inspired by the sacred pilgrimage rituals of Hajj, evoking resilience and collective movement toward justice

Islamic Art is a spiritual project, a way of seeing and making that brings us back to fitra, to unity, to remembrance. It has always been a long-standing project of non-Muslim colonizers to fix and confine the beauty of Islam. But to the contrary, Islamic Art, like the Kaaba, invites us—wherever we come from—to face and express a common truth together.

Hasbunallahu: On Truth-Telling, Art, and Resistance in a World on Fire

Installation view of Nsenga Knight’s The Clinic (2024), suspended transparent black and gold panels with white text, transforming the Queens Museum into a site of sacred resistance.

Artist Nsenga Knight reflects on art as truth-telling and resistance — from Gaza to her own works like Metem and Tawaf/Sa’y — highlighting how artists worldwide bear witness, remember, and challenge injustice.

The Power of Returning Home: Art, Memory, and Belonging

Three brown-skin hijabi women at a dining room table eating Caribbean food. The dining room table is in front of a wall that is decorated with wallpaper that it topaz and has blue and pink lotus flowers and several photos and artworks featuring Black Muslims from the United States, Sudan and Egypt, including Malcolm X and Lynn Hope in turbans.

Two years ago, I returned from my first trip to Guyana — my mother’s homeland. Nearly a year later, I began creating Metem, a film that I knew would be about more than documenting my family’s journey back. In fact, you never actually see Guyana as a place in the film. Instead, Metem unfolds through memory, food, andContinue reading “The Power of Returning Home: Art, Memory, and Belonging”

Black to Palestine: The Making of The Clinic

Nsenga Knight, The Clinic white text drawn on dark transparent of acetate film art work being created in the artist's studio

Discover Nsenga Knight’s The Clinic, an installation transforming symbols of violence into suspended prayers and sanctuaries of resistance. From studio sketches to the Queens Museum, the work reclaims fragility, resilience, and collective healing in the face of conflict.

Why I Make Work About Malcolm X – A Centennial Reflection

A personal reflection on Malcolm X’s centennial, exploring how his legacy shapes Nsenga Knight’s artwork, Islamic identity, and global Black consciousness.

Finding My Footing in Qatar: Art, Diaspora, and the Rise of the Global South

This spring, artist Nsenga Knight reflects on settling into Qatar, engaging with the art world of the Global South, and connecting diasporic threads from Guyana to Doha — a journey of cultural belonging, global shifts, and creative momentum.

January 2025 Wrap Up and Upcoming Event!

Reflecting on major milestones this January—my move to Doha, Qatar, the closing of Close to Home at Queens Museum, press in The New Arab, and the launch of my signed limited edition print Fitra (Amber): Yusuf. Plus, upcoming NYC events, including Malcolm 100X at The New School.

A Journey Through Archives, Identity, and Home: Behind the Scenes of Close to Home

Discover Nsenga Knight’s Close to Home at the Queens Museum, an exhibition weaving personal and collective histories of the Black diaspora, Afro-Arab Muslim identity, and cultural preservation. Explore archival-inspired art and stories of migration, resilience, and home. On view until January 19th, 2025.

Caribbean Summer Vibes: Reflecting on Home, Culture, and Community

Embracing Community Through Art and Connection These past few months have been a whirlwind of creativity and connection, culminating in the opening of my Close to Home exhibition at the Queens Museum in May, five iterations of my new To Know One Another social practice project, and a behind-the-scenes talk and studio visit with inContinue reading “Caribbean Summer Vibes: Reflecting on Home, Culture, and Community”