Bio

April Banks is a Los Angeles–based artist who creates public art and public activations. Her practice sits at the intersection of place and experience, time traveling through historical archives and memories, questioning what we think we know of the past and how it informs our future identities. Deeply focused on community engagement, April is interested in amplifying lesser known stories and creating alternate narratives for the erased and intentionally forgotten.

She is interested in building a commons that proposes moments of suspension from the weight of historical harm. Her current worldbending series, Outlandish, grafts her lush dream world into speculative places and societies, challenging us to reorient toward reciprocity over extraction. Outlandish has alchemized as a solo exhibition and public art sculpture at San Luis Obispo Museum of Art in 2024, an immersive tea and performance at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2025, and a leap year almanac in 2024, with the next volume to coincide with the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

April’s work has been exhibited across the U.S., Switzerland, Colombia, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Senegal and Ethiopia. Her work is in the collection of the Getty Museum, the City of Santa Monica, Los Angeles County and private collections. April was selected for a 2022 Fellowship for Visual Artist Award from the California Community Foundation. Her project Braiding Water received a 2022 California Humanities grant. In 2024 her project Outlandish at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, was funded by an NEA Our Town Grant. April was a fellow at Sacatar Foundation in 2013, Bogliasco Foundation in 2022 and Harper Foundation in 2023. In 2024, April was selected for New Worlds: Women to Watch, by the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

In 2021 April completed, A Resurrection in Four Stanzas, permanent public art that commemorates the hidden history of Belmar, a former Black neighborhood razed by eminent domain in Santa Monica, CA. In 2022, April’s temporary art sculpture, Elevate (Freedom is a Place), was installed in at the Nicholson Project in Washington, DC. Tidewalker, 2024 a temporary sculpture, was unveiled at San Luis Obispo Museum of Art. The Light of Many Suns, 2024, she completed a permanent mosaic mural at Jackie Robinson Park in Sun Village, CA.

She is the producer of Tea Afar, a nomadic storytelling experience, launched in 2016. Tea Afar was conceived as a salve—bringing us together across borders. She has produced over 18 events that center first person stories and hospitality traditions from around the world.

April graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from Hampton University in Virginia in 1996. She obtained a Master of Science in Environmental Design from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 1999.