Stanley Mathis

Stanley Wayne Mathis is a multidisciplinary artist whose work blends sculpture, poetry, performance, and African spirituality to explore themes of identity, healing, and liberation. A Broadway veteran (The Lion King, Jelly’s Last Jam, Kiss Me Kate), Mathis has returned to the fine arts world with Preachin’ to the Choir: An Inconvenient Truth—an immersive multimedia project that melds ancestral wisdom with contemporary social commentary.

Rooted in his upbringing in Washington D.C. and influenced by icons like Romare Bearden, Basquiat, and Nina Simone, Mathis’s work centers Black resilience, intersectionality, and spiritual reclamation. After supporting others’ visions in theater and film, he now boldly claims space for his own work, using art as a form of resistance and restoration.