August 2026

AFRO SPK: Promenade
Opening for Capitol Hill Artwalk
Thursday, August 13, 2026 5-9pm

(Show runs through 8/29/26)

These new  works explore diaspora as a lived experience. I am interested in how people carry culture, memory, and identity across generations, cities, and continents. Diaspora, in my work, is not just about where we come from—it is about what we carry with us.

Growing up in Washington D.C. and building my life in Seattle, I have become interested in the space between home and discovery. The figures in my paintings are travelers, observers, and wanderers moving through landscapes shaped by memory, community, nightlife, and cultural inheritance. They carry pieces of many worlds at once.

Many of my recent paintings are inspired by walking. As a Black artist, I have found joy in moving through spaces where our presence is often unexpected. Rather than focusing on exclusion, I focus on curiosity, freedom, and belonging. My figures stroll, gather, celebrate, and witness. Through them, I explore Blackness as something expansive, evolving, and full of possibility.

These paintings are emotional maps. Through color, symbolism, and recurring characters, I explore what it means to carry history while creating new definitions of home. Ultimately, my work is about movement, presence, and the freedom to imagine ourselves wherever we choose to be.

About the artist:

AFRO SPK  is a Washington, D.C.-born, Seattle-based multidisciplinary artist whose work explores memory, Black joy, and the evolving relationship between identity and place. Through vibrant paintings, murals, and recurring figures, he creates dreamlike worlds where history, community, and imagination intersect. His work is rooted in the belief that culture is carried through people—their movement, stories, and everyday presence.

Drawing from his experiences growing up in Washington, D.C. and building his artistic practice in Seattle, AFRO SPK investigates what it means to navigate spaces while carrying multiple histories. His paintings often depict wandering figures that move between memory and reality, reflecting the experience of belonging to many places at once. Influenced by African American culture, nightlife, music, and the visual language of the African diaspora, his work celebrates curiosity, resilience, and the freedom to exist without explanation.

Beyond his studio practice, AFRO SPK is committed to building sustainable creative ecosystems. He co-founded Crowd Control Collective and later founded Art Vault Seattle, a nonprofit dedicated to providing free art supplies, workspace, and opportunities for artists throughout the region. Whether through painting murals, organizing exhibitions, or creating platforms for emerging artists, his work extends beyond the canvas to support the communities that continue to shape him.

For AFRO SPK, art is more than an object—it is a way of preserving culture, strengthening community, and imagining new possibilities for the generations that follow.

Instagram: @thekingfroshow