Born as Mark Teemer in Sacramento in 1946, Akinsanya Kambon is a former Marine, Black Panther, and art professor. Stricken with polio as a child, he turned to drawing for comfort, and ultimately his therapy. He recalls frequent visits to the Crocker Art Museum as a child, which fascinated him and showed him the human potential in creating art. He served in Vietnam with the United States Marine Corps from 1966–1968, and shortly thereafter, created The Black Panther Coloring Book to bring attention to racial inequality and social injustice. Despite being only semi-literate in his youth, Kambon went on to earn his Master of Arts from California State University, Fresno.

Today, Kambon’s work is as rich and varied as his personal history, expressed through drawings, paintings, bronze sculptures, and ceramics. His ceramics are fired using the Western-style raku technique—a challenging, dangerous, and unpredictable process that creates prismatic and iridescent glaze finishes. He performs kiln firings in a ceremonial manner, breathing life into terracotta figures that typically represent African deities and spirits and, sometimes, American history and religious subjects. Drawing heavily on narrative tradition and personal experience, including extensive travel throughout Africa, Kambon’s work celebrates perseverance through hardship, cultural pride, and his gift as a storyteller. Kambon’s work was the subject of an exhibition at the Crocker Art Museum in 2020.