Reviving Earth’s Colors | Material Storytelling Through Sustainable Practice
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Wander through my studio practiceStudio Practice
My studio practice is interdisciplinary, curious, and rooted in material research. I work with the earth as collaborator, unearthing pigments from soil and rock, creating color from plants, and exploring the stories held within natural materials. Rooted in an ongoing relationship with land, lineage, and place, my work moves through natural dyes and ephemeral materials.
My practice takes form through naturally dyed panels, paintings made with soil, earth, tea, and coffee pigments, poetry, writing, site responsive installations, and embodied movement. I allow the work to take the form it needs, guided by gratitude, slowness, and an attunement to the wisdom of the living world,
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Explore the Seasonal ShopAbenaart Studio Shop
Natural Dyes | Earth Pigments | Small-Batch Works
The Abenaart Studio Shop opens online seasonally (March + November) with small-batch releases, studio sales, and special projects. Each piece is made slowly, in relationship with plants, pigments, and the rhythms of the year.
Natural dye commissions open in March for Spring and August/September for the Fall. Wholesale collaborations and special projects are accepted on a capacity basis.
About
Abena Motaboli (she/her) is a South African-born Basotho-Ghanaian artist, educator, natural dyer, and writer based in Chicago - the unceded lands of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi (Three Fires Confederacy). She is the founder of Abenaart Studio, a seasonal online shop and a studio practice rooted in natural dyes, pigments, and ancestral materials informed by her Ghanaian, Togolese, Basotho, and Ndebele heritage. Her work lives at the intersection of land, lineage, and storytelling.
Born and raised in Lesotho, a landlocked country in Southern Africa, before moving to the U.S., she obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Columbia College Chicago and studied at L'Institut Catholique de Paris in France. With a deep commitment to social and environmental justice, her work explores belonging, interconnectedness, and material histories.
Through intuitive and restorative processes, Motaboli revives earth pigments and naturally dyed fibers, engaging in a dialogue with soil, plants, and rocks. Her research work seeks to bridge a connection between her home country in Southern Africa and where she is currently based in the U.S. Through installation, abstract works, or writting, she creates spaces for reflection, deep listening, and belonging.
Guided by Ubuntu and an ethic of reciprocity and care for the land, she continues to foster communal spaces that celebrate sustainable practices, pigment traditions, and land-based storytelling.
Motaboli has exhibited at Heaven Gallery Chicago, The Bhavan Gallery London, Woman Made Gallery, The Other Art Fair Chicago, SOFA Chicago, and Aqua Art Miami. Her work is also in private collections across the U.S. Her poetry has been published in Northeastern Illinois University’s SEEDS Literary and Visual Arts Journal.
Bio Image above was taken in the Midwestern Prairie by Atoi Glennette
Slide show images on the banner at the top were taken by Katlego Diseko at Tankwa Artscape in the Karoo, South Africa.