Nana Kumi’s beauty archive (2017-2020)—primarily created in Starkville and Jackson, Mississippi as well as New York City—explores the transformative power of adornment and the poetic storytelling of the human canvas. Her work has been featured in film, editorial, performance, and personal ritual. This chapter of her artistry honors the face and body as a repository for storytelling, protection, and becoming.

It’s not “just makeup.” Makeup, or body art as I now call it, is mirror, magick, and the most accessible way I create surrealist art.

Makeup has long been honored by ancient cultures as an integral part of ceremony and a reflection of cultural significance. The impermanence of using the body as a canvas makes each application a sacred moment in time that can only be accessed through memory and photograph. This archive traces my early exploration of beauty as a language of spirit, resistance, and adornment.