Art Exhibit Reception: Celebrating Local Black Artists

Meet the artist and enjoy light refreshments.

Throughout history, Black artists have used their creativity to inspire, challenge, and transform our world. This Black History Month, the Oak Park Public Library invites you to an event celebrating the indelible mark Black artists have made on the art community – both locally and globally. Join us as we celebrate and showcase the work of three incredible artists right here in our own backyard; Tia Etu, Antonia Ruppert, and Hasani Canon. 

Related events:

Idea Box: Celebrating Local Black Artists

Tia Etu

Tia is a graduate of the school of the Art Institute of Chicago. She creates Paintings , Drawings, Sculptures, Murals, Jewelry and puppets. She also restores art. Her personal art captures social inequities in powerful and unique ways.

Life experiences and travels have sat her at the table of many cultures, be it across the sea or across the border lines of Chicago - giving Tia firsthand knowledge of the complexities of the human mind and spirit.

Her pieces reach across all borders of race, gender orientation and religion, and grabs the viewer with a very real sense of human longing, desire, pain and pleasure.

Tia's life long endeavor in creating art has been to improve the quality of the human experience.

Art Creations since 1989

Antonia Ruppert:

Inspired From the Beginning

When Antonia was 7 years old her mother caught her on the living room floor drawing  Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci.  Her mother shrieked as she saw her drawing the nude study in all of its glory.

Who knew her art could evoke such a response? Antonia's fascination with creating was fully hatched in that moment.

Further, she grew up watching my father draw after coming home from work. He would use a pencil and eraser to relax and create. For him, art was very personal, a private way to decompress after a day of work. She would always peek at what he was doing and recall thinking that one day, she'd create like him.

As you can see, from the beginning, Antonia has had a passion for art. 

Though her father had a private practice of sketching, art for Antonia is public and something she share with her community.

She's known in her local community as an artist - building bridges with her creations. Antonia has create series of paintings about people, community art projects that involve others and illustrations using various types of paint.

As the former Artist in Residence for the city of Chicago's Austin Community and the Addison Public Library, she has created art projects that  connect people to their authentic selves. Antonia and her team are excited to serve the community in this way.

Hasani Canon

Born and raised in Oak Park, Ill., Hasani Cannon has been developing his artistic skills since the tender age of five. He is generally interested in the African diaspora, especially in the visual iconography and its evolution over time. His preferred medium is mixed media, which includes the use of colored pencils, permanent markers, recyclable materials, and fabric.

During his high school career, Hasani was a finalist in the Congressman Danny Davis Art Competition, he was a featured artist for the OPRFHS Art Gallery, and he worked each summer since sophomore year with the Oak Park Arts Council Off The Wall project, even contributing to the Black Lives Matter mural in the summer of 2020. He had his first solo show in 2021 at Forest Park National Bank and took part in the Biennial Terrain show of 2021 along with several shows in the UIS Access gallery and in Chicago.

In 2022, he received his BFA in visual arts at the University of Illinois in Springfield and is currently based in Oak Park. During his undergraduate college career, he was heavily involved and a student leader of the Art Student League, Afrobeat Dance Crew, and African Student Association.

Hasani is also a musician and a dancer. He is a drummer for the Chicago-based dance company Najwa Dance Corp and the Chicago band Family Junket.