Vetiver

Vetiver (Vonne Napper) (b. 1989) is a Washington, DC-based transdisciplinary artist, facilitator, educator, printmaker, and land steward. Their practice centers on preserving Black queer & trans identities & narratives and promoting spiritual wellness. Identifying as nonbinary & trans-masculine, Vetiver pulls from their lived experience to highlight the challenges of existing at a particularly targeted intersection in society, and employs their ancestry and relationship with nature to establish connections between the communities to which they belong.

Vetiver was the first artist from the Community Arts MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art to hold residency at the B&O Railroad Museum, where they developed the first arts-based program, The Roundhouse Connection, for middle school students. Following graduation in 2022, they held their first solo exhibition, Choose Your Gender, at Transformer DC, which centered on gender and identity and their grappling with them. In 2024, they were one of two resident artists in the Joshua Johnson Council x Maryland Institute College of Art x Baltimore Museum of Art Artist-in-Residence program, where they created their first iteration of the living archive for the Black queer and trans community. In addition to exhibiting works throughout Baltimore City, they currently steward Blue Light Junction, a natural dye initiative, as Garden & Studio Manager, where they study the spiritual benefits and interdependence of plants and the cultural significance and heritage of working with natural dyes. As co-founder of Lacy Oasis, a Black-owned recreational land in Owings, MD (Piscataway Territory), they help steward the land with their sister to ensure the legacy of their late grandmother, Julia Lacy, is fulfilled. With printmaking, Vetiver continues to work on a living archive dedicated to preserving Black queer and trans narratives through portraiture and transcribed interviews.

Artist Statement

My art practice is a tool for spiritual healing. Although my work has centered around the overall connection between humans and a higher entity, my focus centers on honoring the black queer and trans experience and community wellness. Because of the impactful and transformative nature of art, I immerse myself in the deep waters of every medium. I am unashamed in my approach and have complete faith in the support of my ancestors while on this journey to wholeness. I embrace the ebb and flow of uncertainty and allow transformation to take the lead.

Since my early years of experimenting with various art mediums, before I knew what they were, I exhibited great intent and a serious enthusiasm for my creative pursuits. My willingness to learn new skills came early in life, and the need to connect it to something bigger than myself came later as I began to do more work with the community. While working at the intersection of all of the communities I’ve found myself to be a part of - black, nonbinary, queer, trans - I aim to establish more connections (personal and spiritual) and greater understanding between myself, the world, and the roles we all play in the lives of each other.

The influence of religion as a child has transformed my identity over and over again. I don’t consider myself to be religious but rather spiritual, and my art is deeply connected to my spirituality. Art gave my life reason when preachings from the church tended to do the opposite. Furthermore, my art practice has allowed me to cultivate the most genuine relationships, and practicing my art with other people has opened my mind and encouraged more critical inquiry and evaluation of the way humans relate to each other.

When it comes to creating art, the process is very evolving. I tend to start work from one perspective, utilizing surrealism and minimalism in my approach. As I become changed during the alchemical process of creating, the resulting viewpoint of an artwork is a network of concepts. More often than not, my pieces possess notions of metaphysicality in nature and in human life. For this reason, I create art that makes the viewer question all ideas surrounding life itself, especially in terms of new ways of relating to others. By approaching my art practice with this intention, I create more balance and understanding in the world.