Akilah Watts (b. 1996) is a Barbadian Contemporary Artist who received her BFA in 2017 and went on to participate in Prizm Art Fair of that same year.
Watts works with a number of media to create multiple bodies of work and has exhibited locally (Barbados) and internationally(New York, San Francis- co,etc.) in several exhibitions. Watts hosted her first solo show in March 2019 and she was recently part of an exhibition at the World Trade Centre in New York. She has also been featured online in exhibitions, auctions, articles, and shops such as Artsy, Les iles and Good Black Art.
Watts has been featured in a few local publications such as the Easy maga- zine and the M People magazine and internationally online on Artsy, Art- LeadHER and Artnet. Watts is currently working on multiple bodies of work. One focuses on her relationship with natural hair and her Caribbean roots, while another body of work entitled “Moments From My Island Home” is her way of bridging the gap between the realistic and the idealistic view of her island Barbados.

Artist Statement:
I am interested in depicting a black Barbadian experience. My work focuses a lot on my own personal experience as a black Barbadian Artist but I also touch on a more general Caribbean experience in some of my works. I use imagery such as fruits and vegetables I would have grown up seeing, Barba- dian folklore character(Mother Sally), seascapes and landscapes as well as many prints traditionally found on fabric in old Barbadian homes.
My main goal is to instill a feeling of Nostalgia and or curiosity in the people who view my work. I want the viewer to be entranced in a style of Caribbean art that feels familiar but still relatable. One of my bodies of work features a character that I call the “Acretia”, she is a spiritual entity whose continence bestows confidence, grace, and beauty on whomever she inhabits. When a person is inhabited by the Acretia they take on a look of regality which intern makes the viewer pay attention to the message being conveyed.
My newest body of work entitled Moments From My Island Home, focuses on bridging the gap between the realistic and the idealistic view of my island Barbados. In this series I explore themes of Identity and belonging, as well as culture. I am interested in creating work that is authentic to my Barbadian experience in its truest forms and this is one of the reasons I use family pho- tos in some o f the works in this series.