APRIL BEY | BIO

April Bey’s interdisciplinary artwork offers an introspective and social critique of American and Bahamian culture, feminism, generational theory, social media, post-colonialism, speculative futurism, surrealism and Blerd culture.

Bey’s two-dimensional mixed media works and installations emerge from her ongoing Atlantica series, which imagines the artist as an alien observing Earth and reporting to her home planet. Incorporating faux fur, glitter, vinyl and woven textiles, materials rich in queerness, she creates icons around images of real people from her community. Her collaborative portrait sessions invite participants, particularly queer individuals, to be celebrated and archived within this visual universe. Atlantica imagines a world where Blackness, queerness, pleasure and abundance flourish.

April Bey (b. 1987) grew up on New Providence, The Bahamas, and now works between Los Angeles, CA, and Nassau, The Bahamas, as a visual artist and art educator. She is a tenured professor at Glendale Community College. She holds a BFA from Ball State University and an MFA from California State University, Northridge.

Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV; Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA; California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA; TERN Gallery, Nassau, The Bahamas; and The Union for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE, among others. Her second solo exhibition at Vielmetter Los Angeles, All the Reasons We Never Tell Someone We Love Them… They’re Worthless, opens October 31, 2026, and introduces her first self-portraits alongside tapestries and monumental installations exploring intimacy, desire, self-worth and community.

She has been included in group exhibitions at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX; National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica; Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Wereldmuseum Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, NC; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ; Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA; Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University, Portland, OR; San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, San Jose, CA; and National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, Nassau, The Bahamas, among others. Her international exhibition history also includes the 2024 Poly/Graphic Triennial, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the forthcoming 2026 NGV Triennial at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.

Her work is held in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Indianapolis, IN; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; Fenix Museum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Kistefos, Norway; 21c Museum Hotels, United States; National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, Nassau, The Bahamas; Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA; Escalette Permanent Collection of Art at Chapman University, Orange, CA; Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT; and Fullerton College Art Gallery, Fullerton, CA, among others.

Bey is the founder of The Equity in Collecting Program, a studio initiative that expands access to original artwork for marginalized collectors and connects her experimental practice with questions of ownership, participation and equity in the art market.

Bey is represented by Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA; TERN Gallery, Nassau, The Bahamas; and 193 Gallery, Paris, France.