Ahmad George (b1994) was born and raised in a small quiet neighborhood in Memphis, nestled near the border of Tennessee and Mississippi. In their formative years, they spent time with their two siblings, mostly indoors taking in various forms of storytelling media like books, magazines, sales, and audio tapes of people orating folktales from their local library. This love expanded to mythology from Greece, Africa, and work from the Federal Writings Project, a job program that employed writers such as Zora Neale Hurston and Ralph Ellison. Channeling characters from creation myths to parallel to their narrative, George creates scenes that feel both familiar and fresh for the viewer. They create kinetic paintings by portraying figures in various stages of motion and blending old and contemporary images to make environments where time and surface shift. Through the use of acrylic paint, tarps, and tufting, they explore the temporality of violence, personal family histories blended with fantastical elements, attraction, consequence and the tension of being considered both currency and a former product in the shadow of western imperialism. George’s practice is informed by a history of painters such as Kerry James Marshall, Frida Kahlo, Clementine Hunter, and Beauford Delaney. They received an MFA from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, and was awarded the Holly Hunt Merit Scholarship and the Painting and Drawing Department Teaching Fellowship. George has exhibited in NADA Miami, Atlanta art fair, as well as national and international group and solo exhibitions. They’ve also contributed to multiple public art commissions in the city of Memphis through the Urban Arts Commission.