about
bio
Ebony Iman Dallas is a fifth-generation Oklahoman and second-generation Somali American mixed-media artist whose work bridges lineage, memory, and place. She holds a BFA in Journalism and Art from the University of Central Oklahoma and an MFA from California College of the Arts. After graduate school, Dallas founded the Afrikanation Artists Organization in Hargeisa, Somaliland, where she helped establish the region’s first post-war art gallery.
Her work has been exhibited widely, including a joint exhibition with Guggenheim Fellow Ron Tarver at Oklahoma Contemporary, the Romare Bearden Centennial Celebration in New York, and her traveling solo exhibition Through Abahay’s Eyes, presented at Joyce Gordon Gallery in Oakland and Literati Press in Oklahoma City.
Dallas’s public art practice includes serving as co-lead artist and project manager for a $117K mosaic mural honoring Willa D. Johnson, Oklahoma City’s first African-American female councilwoman. She also collaborated with historians from Durham University and UC Merced, along with Oakland community partners, to create the AfroAquatics puzzle series.
Named Paseo Artist of the Year, Dallas also received the LEAP Artist-in-Residence/ Artist of the Year Award in 2022. She is a founding fellow of the Oklahoma City Thunder Artist Group.
Dallas is the author and illustrator of a graphic memoir titled Through Abahay’s Eyes that is scheduled to release Spring 2026. She shared parts of the story on The Moth Mainstage in 2025.
artist manifesto
Art has the power to change the world through the spread of love or hate.
I choose love.
Art is a language that informs, inspires and unifies across tongue, culture, gender, socioeconomic background, political leaning and ethnicity.
Art encourages hope and dreams beyond current conditions.
Art heals deep wounds and can alleviate depression, anxiety and PTSD.
Imperfection is beauty.
Artists deserve fair trade value for their work.
Everyone deserves access to arts education, art supplies and opportunities to share their work.
Representation matters. Art is a vehicle to share stories from diverse perspectives.
Art is the pulse of a culture and we artists are historians—descendants of ancient cave painters.
I paint to inspire hope.