Floyd Newsum, a painter and printmaker with a career spanning four decades, is a Houstonian by way of Memphis. A University of Houston Downtown professor of art for over 4 decades, he spent his childhood years in Tennessee and received his BFA in Memphis before moving to Philadelphia where he earned an MFA at Temple University.Newsum's latest work demonstrates the influence of West African art in his work. His work is often filled with a signature combination of marks, and abstract patterns along with fish, birds, and ladders. His compositional style generally feels childlike; however, his subject matter centers on cultural climates, political statements, and world events. The contrast of his naive style and serious state of the world focus lend a multi-dimensional quality to his work. In his own words, Newsum has said "I want to provoke thought or conjecture from the viewer. My paintings are a collection of thoughts in a single composition, with the power to present more than one interpretation." Newsum has been in more than 103 solo and group exhibitions and has two paintings in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. His work can be seen in many important private collections around the country and many museum collections including The Studio Museum of Harlem, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Philadelphia Museum of Arts, and the David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland College Park.