Rainbow Serpent co-founder Marques Redd is reviving ancient traditions to create the future of art

We Can Be podcast - The Heinz Endowments

Marques Redd, acclaimed artist and co-founder of multidisciplinary art collective Rainbow Serpent, is helping create the future of art by reviving ancient – and often erased – traditions.

By uplifting Black LGBTQ creativity and culture through the exploration of emerging technologies, innovative healing protocols, African cosmologies, and multimedia art, he is sparking important dialogue and reconsideration of the Western artistic canon.

He shares with Endowments President and podcast host Chris DeCardy why this dialogue is important, and how art creates a bridge for empathy and understanding.

“Public artwork does have a psychic impact and can have a subtle kind of influence over people that might see it.” Marques says. “Ideas that may otherwise be passed over can be sparked into thoughtfulness and conversation when people engage with art.”

A celebrated multimedia artist, independent scholar and traditional African cosmologist, Marques has had an impressive impact across the United States and in cities around the globe in the past several years.

From the film “Obi MBu (The Primodial House)” to the groundbreaking glass sculptures and virtual reality of “Myth-Science of the Gatekeepers” to large-scale mural installations featuring effervescent, shining Black bodies that merge with a universe of stars, Marques and Rainbow Serpent’s art have been front and center in cities including Atlanta, Boston, Pittsburgh, Denver, Raleigh and Tampa, to name but a few.

“The work is so political in the way in which it is raising questions around gender, sexuality, race and Blackness,” Marques says. “I do think that through our art there is continued space for us to contribute to these issues, both here and around the world.”

Listen to this episode of “We Can Be” to launch into Marques’ beautiful, fascinating and moving vision of the world.

“We Can Be” is hosted by Heinz Endowments President Chris DeCardy, and produced by the Endowments, Josh Franzos and Tim Murray. This episode presentation is a partnership between The Heinz Endowments and the Heinz Family Foundation. Theme music by Josh Slifkin. Guest and host photos: Josh Franzos. Guest inquiries: Scott Roller at [e-mail].