Merryn Omotayo Alaka (b. 1997) is a Nigerian-American artist whose work spans sculpture, installation, performance, and fiber practices. Her art delves into material culture and identity as fluid constructs shaped by societal structures and colonial histories. Alaka’s creative practice examines how Black diasporic histories and traditions are preserved across generations, often employing materials and processes that serve as vessels for collective memory. Themes of cultural authenticity and Black legacies inform her conceptualization of safe spaces—essential strategies for passing down imagery and narratives among people whose histories are frequently erased or misrepresented. At its core, Omotayo Alaka’s work is a collaboration with both past and future generations, blending the ancestral with the contemporary and the spiritual with the physical.