Akinsanya Kambon (b. 1946, Sacramento, CA) is a ceramicist, painter and draftsman whose work illuminates African histories, spiritual traditions and narratives of resistance. Best known for his sculptural vessels and figures, Kambon transforms clay into storytelling devices, their surfaces wrapped with sequential scenes of revolution, resilience and ritual. Born Mark Teemer, he adopted the name Akinsanya Kambon after tracing his Yoruban ancestry—a discovery that informs both the subjects of his work and his spiritually rooted, Pan African inspired process.
For over forty years, Kambon has worked in clay, creating ceramics distinguished by iridescent, metallic glazes and richly narrative surfaces. He employs a Western adaptation of the Japanese raku technique, a volatile process in which glazed bisqueware is heated and then rapidly cooled in containers filled with combustible materials such as eucalyptus leaves and hay. The variables of heat, smoke and timing produce spontaneous and unique surface effects––an alchemical transformation that Kambon embraces as spiritual. To this day, he approaches each firing ceremonially, allowing smoke and spirit to shape the final form. “The spirit tells me what to make,” he has said. “I let the spirit guide the work.”
His vessels often depict figures from African cosmologies, slave revolts and revolutionary movements, focusing on underrepresented or erased histories. Equestrian, John Randall, Buffalo Soldier (2012) highlights the Buffalo Soldiers, a group of African Americans who served in the U.S. Army during the Civil War, while other works, like the Tower of Power (2015), speak to the women who were at the forefront of the anti-lynching movement, such as Ida B. Wells. Kambon’s numerous research trips to Africa—including time spent living with the Bambara in Mali and the Mende in Sierra Leone—have profoundly shaped his practice, leading him to incorporate African deities and spiritual figures into his portrayals of American and religious histories.
Kambon grew up in Del Paso Heights, Sacramento. A fateful visit to the nearby Crocker Art Museum left him struck by the paintings on the walls. Having contracted polio at the age of three, which left the left side of his body paralyzed, Kambon had long turned to drawing for comfort, and encountering artworks in person proved transformative. In 1966, at nineteen years old, Kambon was drafted into the U.S. Marine Corps and served in Vietnam until 1968 as an infantryman and combat illustrator. During his deployment, he and fellow Black servicemen endured racism within the military ranks. It was through conversations with his peers that his political consciousness deepened, planting seeds for the activism he would pursue upon returning home. While abroad, Kambon started sketching scenes that would become The Black Panther Coloring Book (1968), a book that brought attention to American histories of racial inequality and social injustice, though it was later mischaracterized as a tool of FBI disinformation.
Upon returning to California, Kambon joined the Sacramento Chapter of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, where he was appointed Lieutenant of Culture. His role focused on creating cultural and educational materials that highlighted Black history and pride, including the Party’s newspaper. But in 1970, Kambon was arrested and later acquitted in the high profile “Oak Park Four” case, during which he spent over a year incarcerated before trial. Following his release, he enrolled at Sacramento City College, where he studied with artists Greg Kondos and Al Bird––who introduced him to the raku ceramic technique that would become foundational to his practice. Kambon went on to earn his MA in Art from California State University, Fresno in 1976. A committed educator and community activist, Kambon taught ceramics at California State University, Long Beach for twenty-six years. In 1984, he founded Pan African Art, a non-profit organization that provides free programs for youth in art, leadership and culture.
Akinsanya Kambon lives and works in Long Beach, California. In Spring 2026, Kambon will be the subject of a major survey exhibition at SculptureCenter in New York. Ortuzar will present a concurrent solo booth at Frieze New York 2026 with Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles. In 2023, Kambon was the recipient of the Hammer Museum’s Mohn Award, which the institution presents to one participating artist in its Made in L.A biennial and for which they produce a monograph, forthcoming in 2026. In 2020, the Crocker Art Museum mounted an institutional survey of the artist’s work, American Expressions/African Roots: Akinsanya Kambon’s Ceramic Sculpture. Kambon is the recipient of awards from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (2022); City of Long Beach (1996, 1994); County of Los Angeles (1994); and California Wellness Foundation, Violence Prevention Initiative (1993).
