When artist Malene Barnett discovered that enslaved Caribbean women once created and sold pottery to sustain their families, and in rare cases, purchase their freedom, clay became more than a medium. It became a way to honor those who survived.
This connection between material and memory drives Barnett’s entire practice. Working across textiles, ceramics, and rugs, she transforms her Caribbean and West African heritage into art you can touch, use, and live with.
Each piece doesn’t just reference ancestry; it continues a conversation with it.”
But Barnett refuses to be confined to one medium.
Clay demands patience—weeks of drying, hours in the kiln—so she fills the waiting with photography, printmaking, and video work. It’s not restlessness, it’s rhythm. Each medium operates on its own timeline, and she’s learned to orchestrate them.
She’s also uninterested in the gallery pedestal. Instead of isolated objects behind glass, Barnett creates immersive environments where textiles, ceramics, and imagery converge. Her installations invite you into a world shaped by the objects she crafts.
That same expansiveness defines how she moves through the art world. In 2018, she founded the Black Artists and Designers Guild, building the support network she wished existed when she was starting out. Her 2023 book, Crafted Kinship, profiles over 60 artists of Caribbean heritage, the resource she searched for in graduate school and couldn’t find, so she made it herself.
Her advice to emerging artists is deceptively simple: build enough stability that your creativity has room to breathe. And then, no matter what, keep making.
Listen
Follow Malene’s lead and show your process. A simple sketch or test piece is enough to start a conversation.
Malene Barnett Quotes
“I made a pact with myself early on that whatever I create would be grounded in my ancestry and identity.”
“Clay is not just material. It’s a tool for liberation.”
“In the Caribbean, enslaved women used clay pots not only to nourish families but also to buy freedom.”
“I don’t want to be defined by one medium. I am multidisciplinary.”
“I’m more interested in creating environments than in showing one-off pieces on a pedestal.”
“You don’t have to wait for a finished piece to share. Share your process—the tools, the research, the works-in-progress.”
“Community is central to everything I do.”
“The good things are coming. They’re already planned, so you don’t have to worry. Just keep making.”
About Malene Barnett
Malene Djenaba Barnett is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, textile surface designer, and community builder. She holds an MFA in ceramics from Tyler School of Art and Architecture and undergraduate degrees in fashion illustration and textile surface design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. In 2022–23, she received a Fulbright Award to serve as visiting artist at Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica.
Malene is the founder of the Black Artists + Designers Guild, which supports independent Black makers globally. When she’s not traveling the world researching Black diasporic aesthetics, she’s based in Brooklyn, New York.
Follow Malene on Instagram: @malene.barnett
