An upcoming local artist

Gino Volpe

Visual Aesthetics

4/10/12

Indie Artist (Musa Hixson)


Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing the chief artist at the Brooklyn Artist Incubator, the man in question: Musa Hixson. I met up with Musa at mu job







Musa was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1977. Around his tenth birthday, Musa and his family moved to New York City. In the spring of ’94 Musa traveled to Rwanda and Uganda as a US Delegate through an invitation from the 7th Annual Pan African Congress. While in Uganda he visited with a Tutsi family that informed of the genocide that was accruing simultaneously in Rwanda and Burundi. This trip inspired a life long interest in the artists’ role in social, economic, and environmental issues and changed his understanding of the power of the visual arts an s a toll to bring social and political issues to the forefront. In 1995, MUSA returned to Brooklyn, to attend the Graduate school at Pratt Institute and earned an MFA in sculpture, from there his work took off.

As far as the medium of his art, Musa has a preference for making pieces out of a bevy of natural and manufactured pieces. His selection includes steel and rope, as well as more natural sources like wood and soil. One of his pieces: Graines de Rêve is an excellent example of this mash up of materials. The piece includes two ropes in twined baskets, well one basket and one cornucopia. From out of the Cornucopia is a small pile of metallic balls. Strikingly enough, this amalgam of both synthetic and organic materials works, making something as innocuous as rope and silver balls striking to the individual.


In so far as a form of expression, Musa explains hat art for him is not form of personal expression of idea, rather a way for him to express a sentiment felt by the surrounding community. The feelings he shares in regards to his art is connected to his work, but not the feelings he shares himself.

Recently, he has taken a break from working personal art projects and has spent the last three months promoting the Cuban festival Soñando en Color (Dreaming in Color) The Soñando en Color project is part of the Havana Biennial, a Biennial Art festival that celebrates Cuban culture through a variety of artistic mediums. Musa’s involvement in this festival is through a promotional gallery in New York and a series of online promotional videos. For Musa, this is his pride and joy and the success of the event is paramount. If all turns out well, Musa will have the inspiration to work on more pieces.

In short, Musa Hixson is an example of contemporary artists at their finest, if not for the drive of people like him, we would not have a successful artistic movement.