Dolls by Rukiya, Showing @ Faie African Art

I received a Facebook in-box message from Faye Edwards, owner of Faie African Art in Chicago, Illinois inviting me to a private showing of dolls by artist, Rukiya of New Orleans.  The showing will be held at her gallery in Chicago, Illinois (see address below) on Thursday, October 10, 2013, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.  Sunday, October 13, 2013, is the general opening. 

Ms. Edwards granted permission for me to share the images of Rukiya's doll art with fellow collectors.  This blog serves that purpose.  Rukiya and her dolls are shown below:

Doll art by Rukiya courtesy of Faye Edwards of Faie African Art, Chicago, Illinois

After conducting a Google search, I found a Wikipedia.com entry for Elenora Ruikya Brown.  The intro reads as follows:

Rukiya is a doll artist who grew up across the street from Chicago's Garfield Park in the 1960s. Although she moved to New Orleans with her family as a teenager, Rukiya returned to Chicago as one of the hundreds of thousands of displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina. Influenced by her many trials in life, Rukiya has been inspired to create dolls that represent healing and strength among women in the African diaspora. Her work illustrates deep connections to the roots she feels in her African identity and the significance of her dolls, according to artist and curator Gale Fulton Ross, is proof “that millions of our ancestors live deep within her center” Rukiya uses traditional craft and embellishments on her dolls that root her work in the history of Africans and the African diaspora. Although she now has a gallery in New Orleans, Rukiya has an established tradition of unveiling her new creations in Chicago, her way of thanking the city for its support after Katrina. Like many African Americans from New Orleans, Rukiya has suffered through the trials and tribulations of life post-Katrina, and hopes to use her art to reflect the healing process in both her life and in the lives of individuals of the black diaspora around the world. The dolls of her “Winds of Change”, “Uprooted” and “Unclaimed Memories” collections, while being rooted in tradition, reflect this contemporary issue as it relates to victims of Hurricane Katrina, many of whom fled to and resettled in Chicago. 

Read more from Wikipedia.com here.

The Google search result also revealed that the artist, Rukiya Brown, was featured in a 2009 issue of O Magazine.  The article indicates she has designed bracelets for O.  A few additional images of her dolls can be seen at the O Magazine website.

If you are in the Chicago area during October 10th through 21st, you might be interested in seeing Rukiya's dolls at:

Faie African Art
1005 E. 43rd Street
Chicago, Illinois 60653
 773-798-9332


dbg

Follow my Dolls for Sale blog

Please visit and "Like" The Doll Blogs: When Dolls Speak I Listen