Join us for a free Artist’s Talk by Omari Booker, recipient of the Center of Excellence for Creative Arts (CECA) at Austin Peay State University’s 2025–26 Tennessee Artist Fellowship. The CECA Tennessee Artist Fellowship celebrates contemporary art and supports the continued creative work of exceptional Tennessee artists like Booker, awarding a $5,000 honorarium to create new works.
About the Artist
Omari Booker, a visual artist based in Los Angeles, California, and Nashville, Tennessee, began his journey as an artist during his senior year of high school at Montgomery Bell Academy. While attending Belmont University, he studied mathematics and other curricula before turning his focus to studio art and graphic design. He later earned his bachelor of science degree in graphic design from Tennessee State University.
Booker primarily makes oil paintings, but mixed media, including charcoal, ink, and found objects, are essential building blocks of his work as well. Large-scale work has been a constant creative outlet for Booker, and murals have also become a consistent part of his creative practice.
Booker takes a process-oriented approach to his art, embracing it as a therapeutic modality to express his passion for independence in the creative process. His art is his personal therapy, and he hopes that those viewing it will have personal experiences of catharsis. The philosophy that undergirds his work is “FREEDOM THROUGH ART,” and he aspires to create work that communicates to his audience their unique and intrinsic ability to be free.
To learn more about Booker, visit his website or follow him on Instagram @omaribooker.
