Will Rawls is an artist and choreographer whose multidisciplinary practice explores the ambiguities of Blackness—its visibility and erasure, its performance and abstraction—to reframe the relationship between language and the body. Most recently, Rawls choreographed and performed as part of the programming for Ceremonies Out of the Air: Ralph Lemon at MoMA PS1, New York and choreographed a new work for the public programming in conjunction with Edges of Ailey at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Other recent presentations include the 35th Bienal de São Paulo, Counterpublic 2023 and Liste Art Fair. In 2016, he co-curated Lost and Found, a six-week program of performances and artist projects at Danspace Project focused on the intergenerational impact of HIV/AIDS on dancers, women, and people of color. Based in Los Angeles and New York City, Rawls currently teaches in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at the University of California, Los Angeles and lectures widely in academic and community contexts. In addition, his work has been exhibited across the U.S., including at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR; The Chocolate Factory Theater, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Institute of Contemporary Art Boston; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven. Rawls has also received fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, Herb Alpert Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, United States Artists, Rauschenberg Foundation, and the MacDowell Colony.

Lyndon J Barrois, Sr is an artist, animation director, filmmaker, and Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Visual Effects Executive Branch member with film credits that include major motion pictures The Matrix Trilogy, Happy Feet, and The Thing. As an artist, he is known for his unique gum wrapper sculptures and stop-motion animation of contemporary and historic figures and events, with portrait and “Sportrait” films produced entirely with an iPhone. His work includes themes of gender inclusion and excellence in the FIFA World Cup and Olympics; the Covid-19 crisis; racial uprisings; racial achievements; and political and social issues. He is well-versed in the worlds of VR, AR, VP, and he has created within the AI space as an OpenAi Sora artist. His work has been featured in such institutions as the Pérez Art Museum Miami; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA); MassMOCA; Hammer Museum; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA); and is included in the permanent collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the SR Foundation in Seoul, Korea.

He is a New Orleans native who received his BFA from HBCU Xavier University, Louisiana and MFA from California Institute of the Arts (CALARTS). He has served on the boards of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; CALARTS; Young Aspirations/Young Artists, Inc. (YA/YA); Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’ Inclusion Advisory Committee; Smithsonian Institution’s Regents Advancement Committee; and the Black Trustees Alliance.