amika Celebrates Hair as Art with ‘Crowns in Bloom’ Exhibition

For this year’s New York Art Fair Week, amika presents Crowns in Bloom: Celebrating Hair in Contemporary Art, an exhibition produced by Alejandro Jassan and curated by Auttrianna Ward. 

The exhibition celebrates and explores hair as a powerful form of identity, memory, culture, and self-expression. 

Rooted in amika’s graphic packaging, fearless relationship with color, and longstanding collaboration with professional hair artists, creativity is central to how the brand sees beauty. 

On view to the public from September 24 through October 9, 2026, the exhibition brings together an intergenerational group of contemporary artists across painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and film.

Chelsea Riggs, CEO of amika, commented:

“At amika, we’ve always believed that hair is a form of self-expression, and that creativity has no boundaries. Crowns in Bloom gives us an opportunity to explore that belief from a new perspective, bringing together artists who see hair not just as something we style, but as a material, a memory, a cultural marker, and a way of telling our stories. We’re excited to create a space where these different perspectives can come together and celebrate all that hair can represent.”

Crowns in Bloom considers hair as material, metaphor, and cultural archive, exploring how it has been cut, braided, wrapped, sculpted, colored, and adorned across cultures and generations. 

Through four thematic pillars, Hair as Medium, Hair as Play, Hair as Landscape, and Hair as Ritual, the exhibition explores hair as an artistic language and its visual, symbolic, and creative possibilities. 

Rather than defining what hair should be, Crowns in Bloom celebrates what it can become. 

Through the work of artists across generations and disciplines, the exhibition invites audiences to look again at something deeply familiar and discover the stories, traditions, identities, and creative possibilities held within it.

Featured artist include: Mickalene Thomas, Malick Sidibé, Torkwase Dyson, Deborah Willis, and Akinola Davies Jr, as well as Vernon Francois, a member of amika’s Stylist Circle.