Zella Vanié

Zella Vanié is an artist and designer bridging creative practice with community empowerment. They have exhibited globally, including in galleries across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Philadelphia, and Amsterdam—where they participated in a group show marking 150 years since the abolition of slavery in Dutch colonies. Their work has been supported with grants from Mass MoCA, the Canopy Program, Flux Factory, and The Other Art Fair. Vanié is a founding organizer with the Experimental School for Black Imagination, a collective offering led by artists tending to the ways we come together to create, feel, and grow. They are also a board member and design lead with the Black Veterans Project. Before their creative career, Vanié served in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper and satellite technician, with deployments to Iraq and Haiti. After transitioning to civilian life as a design strategist in New York, they led work that transformed visions across education, technology, and social impact. Vanié earned an MFA in Interaction Design from the School of Visual Arts; and they split their time between New York City and Côte d’Ivoire. Above all, Vanié’s work aims to ask new questions about what it means to be free, while being a mirror for Black queer folks; visualizing our beauty, divinity, and boundless new worlds that have always been ours to take up spiritual residence in.

Zella is a 2025-2026 Rhizome Fellow.