Africanus Okokon

Africanus Okokon serves as Assistant Professor in the Film/Animation/Video department at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), a position held since 2021. His interdisciplinary practice spans moving image, sound, performance, installation, painting, and collage to interrogate memory, cultural history, and media materiality.

His educational foundation includes:

• MFA in Painting/Printmaking, Yale University School of Art (2020)
• BFA in Film/Animation/Video, Rhode Island School of Design (2013)

Okokon's research centers on the dialectics of forgetting and memory through mediated cultural narratives, examining language, translation, and decay in recorded media. His experimental approach combines analog film techniques with digital interventions to challenge dominant historical frameworks and explore African diasporic identity formation. This manifests in works that repurpose obsolete media formats to investigate how consumer culture shapes collective memory.

His distinguished awards include:

• Decolonize This Award, Chicago Underground Film Festival (2021)
• NXTHVN Studio Fellowship (2021-2022)
• Alice Kimball Traveling Fellowship, Yale School of Art (2019)
• RISD Professional Development Fund (2025)
• New American Paintings Issue #152 recognition (2020)

As an educator, Okokon mentors students through RISD's Film/Animation/Video curriculum while maintaining an active exhibition practice. His recent solo exhibition 'Touch Products' (von ammon co, 2024) demonstrates his commitment to material experimentation, and his upcoming group exhibition 'The Intimacies Between Continents' at UC Irvine (2025) reflects ongoing institutional collaborations. Funding from fellowships and residencies directly supports student-facing projects and technical resource development within the department.