Viewers are being invited to look beyond the face in Zakari's expressive portraits, part of GLAAD's 2026 EMEI cohort. Through gouache and oil, the artist explores Black and queer identity, visibility and belonging, creating vivid work that encourages audiences to notice experiences often pushed out of sight.

Essential Takeaways

  • Portraiture with purpose: Zakari uses distorted figures to explore identity and lived experience.
  • Black and queer stories: Works such as Hair Journey and Vogue centre cultural moments and ballroom expression.
  • Art as self-discovery: Creating became a way for Zakari to embrace their identity in an unwelcoming environment.
  • A wider ambition: The artist hopes to travel internationally and establish a gallery for Black and queer artists.
  • Part of a larger programme: GLAAD's EMEI initiative supports Black LGBTQ creators and challenges HIV stigma through storytelling.

Zakari's portraits ask viewers to look twice

At first glance, Zakari's figures may seem deliberately unfamiliar, with bodies and faces bent away from conventional portraiture. That distortion is the point. Rather than simply recording appearance, the artist uses gouache and oil to make room for the complicated, often hidden parts of a person's identity.

The result is work that feels intimate but never passive. According to GLAAD, Zakari wants viewers to encounter experiences they may not have witnessed themselves, then pause long enough to consider them properly. In a particularly divided cultural moment, that invitation feels quietly powerful.

Black and queer life takes centre stage

Zakari's practice is firmly rooted in Black and queer experience, but the paintings aren't reduced to labels. They show people in motion, connection and celebration, offering a fuller picture of lives that are too often flattened by outside assumptions.

Hair Journey, which depicts a retwist in a barbershop, captures an everyday cultural ritual with warmth and detail. Meanwhile, Vogue turns towards ballroom culture, using figures caught mid-pose to suggest movement, confidence and release. GLAAD's wider coverage of its EMEI artists similarly highlights creators using visual storytelling to make underrepresented lives more visible.

Art became a route to self-acceptance

For Zakari, this work didn't begin as a distant artistic exercise. It grew from the need to understand and welcome an identity that wasn't accepted in their religious upbringing. Painting became a private space first, then a possible bridge to other people who might recognise themselves in the work.

That personal foundation gives the paintings their emotional charge. The work isn't asking audiences to feel sorry for anyone. Instead, it offers recognition, which can be just as affecting. Coverage of fellow cohort members, including Jah Beverly, L. Haz and Kiera Rahming-Reed, shows how the programme brings together artists whose practices are shaped by lived experience and cultural visibility.

Why representation needs the whole picture

Zakari is especially concerned that Black queer people are often viewed through only one part of who they are. In their view, Blackness can dominate the conversation, while queerness is overlooked, or the other way around. Their paintings resist that split by presenting people as complete, layered individuals.

That matters beyond the gallery wall. GLAAD says its Equity in Media and Entertainment Initiative, powered by Gilead Sciences, supports Black LGBTQ creators while using art and storytelling to challenge HIV stigma and encourage cultural change. The approach recognises that representation isn't merely about appearing in the frame; it's about being seen with complexity.

A gallery of their own could be next

Zakari's ambitions stretch well beyond individual exhibitions. They hope to travel with their work and eventually create a gallery dedicated to Black and queer artists, particularly in communities where opportunities remain limited.

It's an ambitious plan, but it follows naturally from the practice. Rather than waiting for institutions to discover artists who have historically been overlooked, Zakari wants to build a platform themselves. GLAAD's celebration of the EMEI cohort and related exhibitions in New York suggest that audiences are ready for these stories, especially when artists are given room to lead the conversation.

The most striking thing about Zakari's work may be its generosity. These paintings begin with personal truth, but they leave the door open for somebody else to step through.

Explore art that makes space for the whole person.

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