Sasha-Loriene McClain
Sasha-Loriene McClain is a Maryland based multidisciplinary artist whose work is informed by her inner-child healing journey and search for home. Born to Liberian immigrants, Sasha-Loriene explores mixed media figuration and collage to cultivate home independent of time, space, and location and actualize the intersection of storytelling and artmaking as a tool for African diasporic healing and empowerment. In doing so, Sasha-Loriene engages multiple channels in an effort to unpack ancestral memory, process loss, and archive generational stories beyond practical use and word of mouth into contemporary works of art.
Sasha-Loriene is a 2023 grant recipient of the Maryland State Council of the Arts and the Baltimore Office of Promotion and The Arts. She has participated in artist residencies in Maryland and exhibited in Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, New York, Florida, and the United Kingdom. As the founder of Mahyue Studios, a community arts incubator centering healing, storytelling, and cultural exchange, and Black Girls Who Paint, a global movement supporting Black women and girl artists, Sasha-Loriene leverages her BA in Economics from University of Maryland: College Park and MPA in Public Management from American University to amplify her artistic voice and social-engagement on larger scales.