Inspired by the title from the gospel hymn of the same name, Beams of Heaven, As I Go explores a power that has sustained Black life across generations: the ability to create joy, beauty, faith, and family through difficult and uncertain journeys. In her new body of work, Zsudayka Nzinga crafts a world in which moments of spiritual connection, celebration, intimacy, and rest become glimpses of heaven on earth.

Nzinga’s figures inhabit protected spaces shaped by family, ancestral presence, and connection with the land, subverting stereotypical narratives of the Black experience. Sharecroppers are honored for the skill that sustains their families and allows them greater independence. People gather for spiritual ceremonies, commune as they work, and strengthen the relationships that undergird Black communities. In several works, Black figures run not from danger, but for pleasure and toward home – transforming a familiar image of flight into one of freedom and return.

Working across unstretched surfaces, Nzinga combines hand-dyed and batik fabrics, marbled paper and canvas, screen printing, relief printing, ink, and acrylic paint. Cotton, tobacco, watermelon, indigo, poke trees, and other symbols of Black American history are embedded throughout her richly layered compositions. Stars and stripes recur across the exhibition, firmly placing Black people, and their experiences of family, work, faith, and joy, within the American story. Informed in part by Christina Sharpe’s idea of “beauty as a method,” Nzinga uses beauty not to turn away from an often painful history, but to imagine how Black life, dignity, and possibility can flourish within it.

A fine artist, curator, and educator based in Washington, D.C., Nzinga earned her MFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2025. Her work has been exhibited at The Phillips Collection, the Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center, and the National Liberty Museum, and is held in significant institutional and private collections. Presented by Stella Jones Gallery, Beams of Heaven, As I Go continues the gallery’s commitment to artists whose work expands the story of the African diasporan experience.