Ashleigh Alexandria "The Virgin Artiste"  explores issues of gender and race through the painting of bodies. Her medium is partly performative in nature and evokes ritualistic techniques steeped in African and indigenous history as a method of articulating contemporary issues affecting Black and Brown women & people.  Recording the site-specific works with photography, fashion and film, Alexandria often distills ideas of visibility, empowerment and objectification with herself as the subject, as seen in her 2019 Selfie series. She also works in mixed media, paint on canvas, film, and co-founded Souldega, a New York-based women's art collective.  Alexandria was born and raised in New York City and studied Fine Arts at Hampton University, a historically Black college in Hampton, Virginia.