Bio

Onzie Deandre Norman (b.1980) is a self-taught mixed media painter and wood sculptor from Detroit Michigan. Onzie started in the field of carpentry in high school and later graduated from the Detroit Carpenters Apprenticeship School in 2003. This craft would play an important role in his artistic development. After a vision in 2013 Onzie begin to draw, this led to his experimenting with painting on wood. Onzie constructs his own canvas out of wood and uses paper, wood, spray paint, acrylic and resin to create one-of-a-kind artworks.

 Onzie has work diligently towards building his art career, his work has been exhibited at Art Prize, the Bombay Artesian Series, Essence Festival, Charles H. Wright Museum, Actors Theater in Louisville, National Afro-American Museum in Wilberforce, Museum of Science and Industry Chicago, Agora Gallery in New York, Xavier University and The Dayton Art Institute. Onzie’s artwork is in many private collections and recently his work has been acquired by Don Tuski President of the College for Creative Studies, actor Charles Michael Davis, NFL linebacker Deandre Levy, Helene Gayle president of Spelman College and American journalist Stephen Henderson. In 2023 he was selected as the Gucci Changemaker, having his mural, “Botanical City” installed on the side of the Siren Hotel in Detroit, MI.

Artist Statement

I have an energetic approach to interpreting various aspects of life. I manipulate and re-imagine ideas with mix media materials, using paper, collage, paint and wood to create distinctive bodies of work. The majority of my artwork is created on a handcrafted wood canvas which allows me to construct different shapes and sizes. My focus is to use art to address history, heroes, music, architecture, still life and ethnicity especially through abstracted portraiture.

So ultimately, I am developing into a visual interpreter of life and creator of images, showing how all aspects of the material world can be re-imagined and reformatted to express ways of thinking and living that embrace all of humanity.