Origin Story
ARTNOIR started as a group of friends organizing “field trips” to museums, galleries and art fairs around the globe. In it, we discovered the power of numbers, and friendship, to make traditionally exclusive art world spaces feel colorful, inclusive and welcoming.
We also discovered a passion for ensuring that the next generation of Black and Brown creators, curators, and collectors are connected in community, and contributing to each other’s success. Today, ARTNOIR is a female-majority and black + brown owned, NYC based global collective and 501(c)(3) with a mission to celebrate and highlight the work of creatives of color while catalyzing cultural equity across the arts and culture industries.
We seek to empower artists, enthusiasts, curators, forward thinking organizations, storytellers, designers and patrons, to explore alternative perspectives to the traditional arts narrative, while leveraging the intersectionality of art and culture to develop new access points for discussion, exploration and collaboration.
Our Partners:
“The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover.
If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.”
The Founders
Larry Ossei-Mensah
Co-Founder, ARTNOIR
CURATOR
Larry Ossei-Mensah uses contemporary art as a vehicle to redefine how we see ourselves and the world around us. The Ghanaian-American curator and cultural critic has organized exhibitions and programs at commercial and nonprofit spaces around the globe from New York City to Rome featuring artists such as Firelei Baez, Allison Janae Hamilton, Brendan Fernades, Ebony G. Patterson, Modou Dieng, Glenn Kaino, Joiri Minaya and Stanley Whitney to name a few.
Ossei-Mensah is a contributor to the first-ever Ghanaian Pavilion for the 2019 Venice Biennial with an essay on the work of visual artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.
Ossei-Mensah is the former Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator at MOCAD in Detroit. He co-curated in 2019 with Dexter Wimberly the critically acclaimed exhibition at MOAD in San Francisco Coffee, Rhum, Sugar, Gold: A Postcolonial Paradox in Spring/Summer 2019. Ossei-Mensah currently serves as guest curator at BAM's Rudin Family Gallery. He will be co-curating with Omsk Social Club 7th Athens Biennale in Athens, Greece in 2021. Ossei-Mensah was named to Artnet’s 2020 Innovator List.
Carolyn “CC” Concepcion
Co-Founder, ARTNOIR
Carolyn “CC” Concepcion is a multi-disciplinary creative entrepreneur, global marketer and innovation strategist. She has built a career visualizing dynamic futures, creating business growth driving partnerships and strategies, designing interactive experiences and developing culturally rich communities, products, platforms and content for top brands, celebrities, start-ups, cultural institutions, and social impact organizations. She has experience across a multitude of industries including music, tech, art, food, design, travel, cpg, spirits, sports, TV & film.
CC has worked with Instagram, Google, YouTube Music, Airbnb, Nike, IKEA, Dropbox, Sonos, Saint Heron/ Solange Knowles, Spike Lee, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Ghetto Gastro, Heineken USA, PepsiCo and others. She is a New Museum IDEAS CITY Detroit Fellow, holds a Masters degree from NYU in design strategy, cultural innovation & storytelling,
Danny Báez
Co-Founder, ARTNOIR
Founder, Regular Normal
Danny Báez is a regular and normal guy based in New York City. He is the Co-Founder and Director of MECA International Art Fair in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Co-Founder and Board Member of the ARTNOIR Collective. He firmly believes in the power of building upon community and has organized various exhibitions in New York since 2010.
Isis Arias
Co-Founder, ARTNOIR
Isis Arias is a brand marketer, executive producer of both content and experiential and an entrepreneur. As a wife and mother of three, she is a professional leader of teams in business and has worked with experts across multiple industries and brands to bring creative ideas to life. Always thinking strategically and considering creative ways to innovate, she has been able to successfully motivate and inspire others by simply showing up authentically and empathetically.
Her experience in multi-layered businesses and campaigns has come from leading teams on items such as ComplexCon, Revolt Summit, The New City Conference and more.
Additional brand clients include: Airbnb, Google, Hennessy, Nike as well as various brand activations around cultural tent poles from All Star Weekend to Art Basel in beverage, beer & spirits, sneakers and streetwear.
Jane Aiello
Co-Founder, ARTNOIR
managing Director, RA Travel
Jane Aiello is the Managing Director of RA Travel Inc., the oldest Minority & Women-owned travel agency in New York City. With over 15 years of experience in the bespoke luxury travel/hospitality industry, Jane brings with her a passion for worlds unseen and for the acceptance of people from all walks of life. Her clients range from some of the entertainment industry’s biggest names and top models to heads of state/diplomats from countries all over the world. Jane’s appreciation for artistic expression in all forms has increased her patronage, while cultivating her coveted relationships within the fine arts community and beyond. Her burgeoning art collection includes such artists as; Toyin Odutola, Sanford Biggers, Adler Guerrier, Awol Erizku and Rico Gatson to name a few. She is an active member of The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern Art, a Founding Contemporaries Patron at The Whitney Museum, an Insider Member of Brooklyn Museum and she’s on the board of The New York African Film Festival (NYAFF).
Melle Hock
Co-Founder, ARTNOIR
CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, EDELMAN
Melle has a passion for bold ideas that tap into culture and build the bottom line. She has more than a decade of experience working with clients across FMCG, retail and technology Qsectors, including Samsung Mobile, GE, HomeGoods, Foot Locker, Unilever personal care and Unilever Incubator brands. In her role as Executive Strategy & Planning Director in New York, Melle advances research innovation and planning processes that are data-rich, earned-centric, and culturally inspired. She specializes in helping brand marketers illuminate insights, act strategically and challenge their creative boundaries. Melle also serves as portfolio lead for Dove, leading breakthrough work on the CROWN Act, COVID relief response, the Dove Self Esteem Project, and the Dove Men+Care Father’s Day Taken Fund. Melle is the local chair of Griot, Edelman’s black employee network. She is a fierce advocate for cultural inclusion and advancing careers for people of color in media and advertising. Melle is a proud alumni of Columbia University and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.
Nadia Nascimento
Co-Founder, ARTNOIR
Global Brand Strategist & Executive Producer
Nadia Nascimento is a global marketer, cultural innovator and experience designer whose work lies at the intersection of media, art and activism. Her strategies in digital and experiential have focused on top-tier brands, institutions and impact-based ventures such as (RED), VIACOM, BBC, United Nations Foundation, BET and Essence. Her background in tech, strategy, and culture has put her at the cutting edge of experience design, gathering global thought leaders to produce convenings with Summit Series, TED, OkayAfrica, Sundance, and alongside Impact Agency, Invisible Hand: Planned Parenthood, Dianne Von Furstenburg, and PBS. She is passionately committed to creating inclusive, diverse and equitable spaces using creativity and storytelling to propel the world forward creating seismic change.
Press & Media
ARTnews - ARTnews Presents ‘The Deciders,’ As Selected by Guest Editor Hank Willis Thomas
BUBBLEGUMCLUB - ARTNOIR // Creating space for black and brown art
Complex - ARTNOIR and the Meatpacking District to Launch Black Cultural Festival
Cultured - Artnoir Reclaims the Black History of New York’s Meatpacking District
1st Dibs - Larry Ossei-Mensah and ARTNOIR Are Shaping the Future of the Art World
Forbes - Support Black Artists By Placing A Bid In ARTNOIR’S Artsy Auction
The New York Times - Constantly on the Go, Looking for New Voices
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