Lamavis

New Americana

This exquisite painting was inspired by a vision of future Americans. The portrayed woman’s features are glimpsed in the faces of people across the country, LAMAVIS black, brown, and white alike. COMUNDOIWILLA New Americana is a representation of a society in which we stand together, rather than in opposition to each other. During one of my many chats with Lamavis, we reflected on what citizenship means “ to us today, and how our country is being transformed by the strong voices of the younger generations. — Nancy Lopez

Comundoiwilla believes that contemporary art carries the same potential for political advocacy and social change.

His investigation of modern art grew more multifaceted when Comundoiwilla realized that painters like Picasso and Dalí drew inspiration from Ancient Egypt.

“Why do we refer to Picasso as the father of cubism,” he asks, “but we don’t acknowledge the Egyptians who he got his inspiration from?” Because of this question, he strives to reclaim

the stolen, eradicated art of precolonial civilizations.

Untitled

Text from Lora Supandi’s profile of Lamavis in the Stanford Daily 14

Comundoiwilla made it his mission to study precolonial African history. In this endeavor, he discovered long records of the greatest matriarchal societies to ever exist, such as the Candaces of

Meroe who were the queens of the Kingdom of Kush. Unlike the patriarchal nature of Western societies, the Candaces exemplified the strength of a matriarchal governance.

Appalled by the hypersexual, degrading portrayals of women in Western mass media, Comundoiwila turned to the Candaces for a radical muse. He paints Black

Amani Candice

women, inspired by the historical queens of Meroe, because he wants to change the way we depict them in today’s society. His painting, Amani Candice, is a vibrant recreation of Kandake Amanirenas, the queen who defended her kingdom against the armies of the Roman Empire.

2042 is a tribute to what the future will hold in the United States of America.

This country was stolen from the Native Americans and the Mexicans. It was built by Black slave labor. The industrial age would not have

ever happened if the railroads

weren’t created by Asians, and I can’t wait for this nation

to belong to the people who built this country.” “ — Lamavis

Untitled

Text from Lora Supandi’s profile of Lamavis in the Stanford Daily