Jay is a Cork-based Mauritanian artist. His current digital portraits, inspired by street art, are the product of a never-ending journey as a visual artist to learn new techniques to display something so familiar and straight-forward and yet highly complex as a face.

His series, ‘The Mauritanian’, is the result of a long exploration of his roots and place within and across cultures.

He has a portrait of Nelson Mandela in the Mauritanian National Museum (since 2017) and has been featured on Marvel Studio’s social media channels.

Under the name ‘Otaku Black’, Jay is a rapper with Craic Mob, a multilingual hip hop crew in Cork, bringing together MCs and producers with African, Caribbean, Mexican, and European heritage.

@jaydiaganarts