J. Alpha Massaquoi jr

About the Artist

Baltimore based artist, James ALPHA Massaquoi Jr., is an emerging artist that works primarily with large drawings made with charcoal and pastels. Alpha was born in West African, Liberia, as the youngest of four to an upper middle-class family, where his father worked as a florist for the United States embassy to Liberia, and his mother was a Fashion designer with a small charcoal business. At age fourteen Alpha and his family moved to the U.S. seeking the "American dream". However, life wasn't easy, the 2008 recession just happened, and racism and colorism were new challenges Alpha and his family had to face.    Alpha attended Towson University where is studied painting, drawing, and printmaking. During this time, Alpha fell in love with charcoal as his primary medium. So, he decided to stop painted and focus on refining his drawings.  After Towson University in 2019, Alpha has been a part of some major group shows in the United states and a few major solo shows in Baltimore city Alpha is the founders of Hot Sauce Artist Collective LLC, which supports artists and bridge the gap between the people and arts, and created a platform for artists to show case their work during the lock down.