Rashad Ali Muhammad
Rashad Ali Muhammad is a multidisciplinary artist of the African diaspora whose mixed media collages explore culture, identity, spirituality, and nature. His work celebrates authenticity, self-love, and connection while challenging stereotypes faced by people of color and the queer community. Drawing on his background in graphic design and photography, Muhammad blends contemporary artistry with classic design principles to create visually rich, thought-provoking works. A resident artist at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, he has exhibited nationally and internationally. He was a 2023 Art and Peacebuilding Fellow at GMU, with features in The Washington Post, Kolaj Magazine, Create! Magazine, and British GQ.
@ramcreates
Undetectable Radiance Amidst Stigma
Mixed media collage on unstretched canvas, 87” x 63”
Undetectable Radiance Amidst Stigma explores the emotional terrain of living with HIV under the enduring weight of societal and cultural prejudice. At its center, a figure embraces an abstract red form, suggesting both another person and an intimate act of self-preservation. The gesture merges the tenderness we extend to others with the fierce strength to protect ourselves and those around us.
The work honors the legacy of the AIDS epidemic—the protests, the loss, and the queer elders whose absence still echoes across generations. Many today continue to navigate desire, identity, and grief in a landscape shaped by silence and survival.
Even now, the ripple effects of that silence remain. Rooted in lived observations within queer culture, the piece acknowledges how stigma still lingers—especially in spaces of intimacy and connection. In communities where shame persists, this work offers quiet resistance. The more we speak what was once unspeakable, the less power it holds. Bringing it into the light becomes an act of liberation.