Equestrian Black Samson, 2012.

Born in Sacramento as Mark Teemer, Kambon is a former Marine, Black Panther, and art professor. In his artwork, Kambon draws on ideologies of Black Power to visualize suppressed histories and narratives of the Black diaspora, including stories and mythologies of Africa and the Americas. This work is a retelling of the Biblical story of Samson and Delilah, in which Samson reveals that his hair is the source of his superhuman strength. Kambon employed the image of the traditional equestrian figure to present an alternative history of Black identity that contends with Eurocentric visual representations of spiritual and physical strength.

LOOK FOR: Samson’s muscular physique, seven locks of hair, and use of hair in the horse’s tail.