Shenita Allen is an Oakland-based visual artist and educator whose work explores the performance of emotion as a site of survival, control and resistance. She earned her MFA in Drawing and Painting from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 2025, and BFA in Art Education in 2021. She primarily works in portraiture and her work preserves emotion, family and memory a living archives.

She earned her MFA in Drawing and Painting from the Academy of Art University in 2025, and her BFA in Art Education from the Academy of Art University in 2021. Her expressive, large scale paintings capture loved ones and community in moments of becoming, stillness and depth. Her current series reveals what composure conceals, layering color and gesture to investigate the performance of smiling as a site of control, resistance and survival. Shenita’s practice bridges personal history and collective reflection. It is rooted in lived experience, education and storytelling, and honors the endurance and intimacy of the people who shape her world.