Photograph by Andy Bonura
Jasmine Abena Colgan is an interdisciplinary + conceptual artist, educator and scholar who is based in Colorado. Her visual artworks vary from photographic printing processes such as Platinum & Palladium, Chrysotype, as well as Cyanotype on sea shells to Artists’ Books, however, she finds a way to mix multiple mediums to address social, civil and criminal contemporary issues in her work.
Jasmine integrates her cultural upbringing as a Woman of Colors, living in America as a bi-racial woman of Irish American-Ghanaian roots who never really fit in in the world until she developed the skin condition vitiligo. From vitiligo, she developed Tough Skin, which is an empowerment movement that encourages others to celebrate the skin they live in. From this, she created a skincare company that sources raw ingredients from Northern Ghana, by abena, implements two cultures into one jar of magic.
Abena's modeling work has been featured in campaigns for Crocs, Starbucks, Verizon, Tinder, Furniture Row, and is best known for her skin representation in Call of Duty as Nila ‘Nova’ Brown.
Colgan earned her BFA degree from the University of Colorado Denver studying photography and later earned her MFA in Interdisciplinary Media Arts Practices at the University of Colorado Boulder.