Current Exhibit

Being Black: The Immigrant Experience

Formal opening reception with the artists - April 20, 5:30pm

Being Black features and integrates the work of two acclaimed regional artists — Jozimar Matimano, whose life and large-scale paintings depict the immigrant experience, and Becky Field, whose documentary photography over the last decade has chronicled New Hampshire’s cultural diversity. Together they have explored how people of color from all over the world, from Africa, the Caribbean, and elsewhere, come to be seen and to see themselves as Black when settling in majority-White America, in ways both like and unlike African American citizens.

 Immigration is one of the most pressing issues of the day, and yet people have been moving from place to place for centuries. Today immigrants are often racialized and seen as a political crisis. Becoming part of our region’s multicultural community is not an easy process for immigrants who must find and forge entirely new homes, new jobs, and families of choice. However, the diversity that immigrants bring to the Granite State, as well as to our country, enriches and strengthens our communities and economies for the benefit of all. The experiences of self and community through the immigrant journey radiate from the colorful images in this exhibit that these artists have graciously shared with us at the Seacoast African American Cultural Center.

Jozimar and Becky first met in 2017. Over the years, Jozimar has invited Becky to his studio to photograph some of the creative scenes that he designs, often including himself as the subject. She then sends her digital images for him to transform those scenes onto his canvas. Their partnership and work illustrate both their mutual respect for each other’s art forms, and their common interest in displaying and honoring the diversity and contributions of new Americans in our communities.

 This exhibit integrates Jozimar’s powerful oil paintings with Becky’s immigrant photography. While the occasions and timing of their respective works were different, the pieces are paired in this exhibit based on similar expressions, composition, and content to reflect two artforms on a common theme.

The first, Jozimar Matimano, is a fine art painter who specializes in large-scale oil portraits and paintings. Matimano was born in Butembo in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where he also grew up, moved to Uganda at ten and then to Manchester, NH through the International Institute of New England in 2016. Interested in drawing and illustration from an early age, he began painting in 2018 as a way to express himself by telling stories through painting. Pursuing the fine arts as a career, he attended the Institute of Art at New England College and received his Associate in Liberal Arts in 2023. Matimano has jointly exhibited at Boston’s SoWa Gallery and solo in NH at the Proctor Academy, The Derryfield School, Manchester Community College, and Riverview Artist Studio.

The second, Becky Field, is an award-winning documentary photographer and educator based in Concord, NH who focuses on the cultural and religious diversity of the Granite State. She holds a certificate from NH Institute of Art - as well as a doctorate in wildlife ecology - and further studied photography at Maine Media Workshops, Center for Photography at Woodstock, and Photographic Resource Center, as well as participated in workshops for the United Nations. Field previously exhibited her photography at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), NHTI Community College, NH Institute of Art, NH Society of Photographic Artists, Southern New Hampshire University, and, with Matimano in 2022, at the Carriage House Gallery at Kimball Jenkins