Shanna Strauss

Shanna Strauss is a Tanzanian-American-Canadian mixed media artist and printmaker currently living and working on Ohlone unceded territory (Oakland, CA). Raised in Tanzania, she later moved to Canada and then to the United States. Her work explores oral tradition, family legacy, ancestral memory, and spirituality within African diasporic traditions, often paying homage to the women in her family and the communities to which she is connected.

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Shanna holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the California College of the Arts and a Master of Social Work from McGill University. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the de Young Museum, Art Toronto: Contemporary Art Fair, and Papier Contemporary Art Fair. Her work has been featured in publications such as Canadian Art, The Washington Post, and the San Francisco Standard.

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Her work is part of several private and public collections, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the North Dakota Museum of Art, the Euphrat Museum of Art, the Library of Congress, and San Francisco International Airport. She is the recipient of several awards, including the PrixPowerhouse from La Centrale Galerie, the Kala Art Institute Printmaking Fellowship, and the Denbo Publishing Fellowship at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center.

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Public art and community engagement are also central to her practice. Her commitment to radical social transformation has inspired collaborative projects and large-scale public murals that center the experiences and stories of BIPOC individuals and communities. Her public artworks can be seen in Montreal, Tucson, San Francisco, El Cerrito, and Sacramento.