Mark Lomax II and the Urban Art Ensemble

Columbus-based Mark Lomax II is a critically acclaimed musician, composer, activist, and educator who has performed with gospel choirs around the country. Lomax has worked with jazz artists such as Delfeayo Marsalis, Clark Terry, and Bennie Maupin. A local treasure, Lomax uses his talents to explore the spiritual and sociopolitical aspects of African American art and build bridges in the community. With the support of a 2018 Wexner Center Artist Residency Award, Lomax completed and premiered his work 400: An Afrikan Epic at the Wex on January 16, 2019. The 12-album project focuses on the story of Black America over the 400 years between the start of the transatlantic slave trade and today but also delves further back into precolonial African history and pushes beyond the present with an Afrofuturist vision of community strength and union.