Jamilla Okubo author page

Jamilla Okubo biography

Jamilla Okubo is a Kenyan–American interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, pattern and textile design, fashion collaboration and illustration. She earned a BFA in Integrated Design from Parsons School of Design in 2016. Her work often explores identity across African and Caribbean diasporas, combining figurative imagery with layered pattern and textiles.

Okubo’s collaborations include the Dior Lady Art #2 project, for which she created designs for the Lady Dior handbag in 2017. In fashion, she was commissioned by Pyer Moss to produce drawings of Sister Rosetta Tharpe for the label’s “Collection 3 — Sister,” with artwork appearing across garments and campaign materials.

Her illustration and publishing credits include book-cover art for the UK edition of Tayari Jones’s An American Marriage and for Zora Neale Hurston’s Moses, Man of the Mountain. As a children’s illustrator, she contributed artwork for Time for Change: The Lion and Hyena Story (Shout Mouse Press, 2016). She is also the illustrator of the folklore compendium Tales of East Africa (Chronicle Books, 2020), a collection of stories from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Okubo’s work has been shown in group exhibitions in the United States and the United Kingdom, and has been reproduced in magazines and on book jackets. She has undertaken public art and installation projects and her images have appeared in cultural and literary contexts for international audiences.

Selected works and collaborations: Dior Lady Art #2 (2017); Pyer Moss “Collection 3 — Sister” (commissioned artwork); illustrator, Time for Change: The Lion and Hyena Story (2016); illustrator, Tales of East Africa (2020); cover art for An American Marriage and Moses, Man of the Mountain.