Lehna's profile
Lehna Huie (b. 1988, New York City) is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and cultural worker of Jamaican heritage whose practice weaves painting, sculpture, installation and spatial work through the lens of mysticism and wonder. Her approach to representational portraiture engages memory, diaspora, and embodied identity through layered materials and immersive compositions grounded in personal and collective histories collage, drawing, and video to address the ways we achieve belonging amidst a shifting world.
Huie’s works draw inspiration from Pan- African and Caribbean oral histories. Concentrated on non-linear time and ritual, her pieces are rooted in an archival practice of creating dream landscapes that document her lineage. Composed of textile scraps, paper, beads, shells, plant matter, and everyday objects, Lehna personifies the land and waters surrounding her roots -through a variety of scale, medium, and surface to reimagine remembrance as an atmospheric experience. Huie’s practice functions as both visual testimony and active archive, honoring ancestral presence and advancing artist’s role in sustaining memory and community.
Huie’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions including the National Gallery of Jamaica (Kingston, JM); Creative Alliance ( Baltimore, MD ), The Peale Museum ( Baltimore, MD ); the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (Brooklyn, NY); the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington ( ArlingtonVirginia ); Weeksville Heritage Center (Brooklyn, NY); Rush Arts (Philadelphia, PA); the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (Detroit, MI); Quartair Contemporary Gallery (The Hague, NL); and the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art (Staten Island, NY), among others.
In recent years, Huie has presented significant interdisciplinary projects, including her solo exhibition In Remembrance of Us (2025) at ACRE Projects in Chicago—an autobiographical exploration of intergenerational geographies and cultural memory incorporating fiber, natural materials, and sculptural forms. Her work has also appeared in installations such as Divine Intervention: Stories of Love and Solidarity at MoCADA’s Abolition House (2024), where she translated interview-based processes into textile, collage, and video environments addressing cultural labor and collective care.
Huie has received numerous awards and residencies, including recognition as an Artist Changemaker with the Global Fund for Women, the Space for Creative Black Imagination Makers & Research Fellowship, and participation in programs such as Stoneleaf Retreat Art Mamas Residency, the Joan Mitchell Center, ACRE Residency, Chautauqua School of Art Residency, Elsewhere Studios Residency, Flux Factory, Snug Harbor Residency, and the Bandung Residency. She has also represented the United States at the Hague Contemporary Art Fair through Quartair Gallery. Lehna will be participating in upcoming residencies at Wassaic and Ma’s House in 2026.
