April Sunami – Continuum:
Artworks from 2014 - 2026
ON VIEW: Until October 30, 2026
Artist Statement
For over a decade I have considered myself a cultural producer, contributing to the ongoing conversation of race, identity and representation through the creation of paintings that place black women front and center as the subject of my work. I deliberately create images of strong, spiritual, women of color as a means of proclaiming my personal identity and providing a different lens for the social perception of black women. Many of my works are titled after West African queens and deities forgotten or ignored by Western historians. Through excavating these names, I feel I am remembering a marginalized past. It is also important to me that the woman is portrayed as an active and powerful subject instead of a passive object.
As a foundational base of my paintings I utilize oil and acrylic mediums. I render the faces and flesh in oil and I use acrylic to paint the ground palette of the body, clothes, and background. I build up the surface of my canvas and create texture by utilizing everything including paper beads, maps, wood, fabric, broken mirrors, bullets, stones, breakaway glass from car accidents, and anything else I acquire. Mostly these objects that I use in my paintings come to represent specific themes in my work such as spirituality, history and mythology of the African diaspora, ancestral ties.
Free and open to the public.
April Sunami is a professional visual artist primarily focusing on mixed-media painting and installation. She earned her Master of Arts Degree in Art History from Ohio University and her Bachelor of Arts Degree from the Ohio State University. Sunami is also an award-winning installation artist through the 2012 Columbus Art Pop-Up Project sponsored by the Greater Columbus Arts Council. Her work has been widely exhibited in galleries and museums including the Columbus Museum of Art, National African America Museum and Cultural Center and the Southern Ohio Museum. Sunami is married to writer and philosopher Christopher Sunami. They both live in Columbus, OH and co-parent two bright and imaginative kids.
The Elijah Pierce Gallery Hours
The Elijah Pierce Gallery is open by appointment during administrative hours and
offers group tours Tuesday through Friday, 1 PM to 5 PM.
Sunday: Closed
Monday: 10 AM - 5 PM
Tuesday: 10 AM - 5 PM
Wednesday: 10 AM - 5 PM
Thursday: 10 AM - 5 PM
Friday: 10 AM - 5 PM
Saturday: By appointment only
The Dream Corridor is open to the public during administrative office hours.
Welcome to the Elijah Pierce Gallery, named in honor of Elijah Pierce, Columbus' Near East Side resident and America's premier 20th-century folk art wood carver.
The gallery showcases a diverse collection of historical and contemporary exhibitions spanning painting, sculpture, graphics, photography, and decorative arts.
ABOUT ELIJAH PIERCE
Elijah Pierce (b. March 5, 1892) was born to a former slave in Baldwin, Mississippi and began to carve at an early age when his father gave him a pocket knife. He developed a hobby for woodcarving and began carving wooden farm animals and other figurines from wood scraps he found. In his teens Pierce had taken an interest in barbering. He learned the trade from a barbershop in his hometown and decided to make it a career. He moved to Columbus in 1923 to be with his wife Cornelia and opened a barbershop on East Long Street after her death in 1951.
After his move to Columbus, Elijah began to carve wood more seriously. By the early 1930s, be began mounting his three-dimensional figures on cardboard or wooden backgrounds. In 1932, Pierce completed the Book of Wood, which he considered his best work. As an evangelistic lay minister, a number of his later works were also inspired by biblical stories and proverbs, Old and New Testament topics inspired him. “Every piece of work I got carved,” stated Pierce, “is a message, a sermon.” His early work also depicted African-inspired fables, Freemasonry symbols, African-American heroes, and a veritable “Noah’s Ark” of animals.
During this lifetime, Pierce received international recognition for his work and is regarded as one of the most talented and influential woodcarvers of his time. In 1973, Pierce won first prize in the International Meeting of Native Art in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. In 1982, the National Endowment of the Arts awarded him a fellowship as one of 15 master traditional artists. After his death in 1984, the Martin Luther King Jr. Performing and Cultural Arts Complex recognized his work by naming the Elijah Pierce Gallery in his honor.
Operating supporters include AMERICAN ELECTRIC POWER Foundation, Bath and Body Works, City of Columbus, Columbus Foundation, Crabbe Brown & James, LLP, Easton Community Foundation, Greater Columbus Arts Council, Martin Luther King Breakfast Committee, Inc., Nationwide Foundation and Ohio Arts Council.