"Detox the Ghetto" Tribute to renowned graffiti artist Jerry Gant • 2019 • Morris Museum-A Smithsonian Affiliate
Will Kasso Condry
Will Kasso Condry is a renowned artist and educator whose work moves through Afrofuturist and surrealist visual languages to explore African diasporic identity, ancestral memory, and the liberatory power of Black imagination. Originally from Trenton, New Jersey, Condry began making art at a young age as a means of self-expression and survival within an under-resourced urban environment.
His work is characterized by intricate layering, vibrant color, symbolic detail, and narrative composition. Drawing from the storytelling traditions of West African griots, Condry builds expansive visual worlds in which figures, plants, animals, ancestral presences, cosmic imagery, and imagined landscapes carry stories across time.
With more than two decades of professional experience, Condry’s practice spans large-scale murals, graffiti, illustration, exhibition work, community-based public art, and arts education. He is the founder of SAGE Coalition, a former Trenton-based community arts nonprofit dedicated to revitalization and beautification, where he served as executive director for five years. Since relocating to Vermont, he has taught at Middlebury College and in K–12 schools and has served as artist-in-residence at the University of Vermont, Princeton University, and Middlebury College. Condry is the co-founder of Juniper Creative Arts, an award-winning Vermont-based family collective known for community murals and culturally rooted arts programming that uplifts belonging and visual storytelling.
Condry received the inaugural Vermont Prize in 2022, the 2025 Herb Lockwood Prize in the Arts, and a 2015 Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition for Service to the Community. His murals and illustrations have been commissioned by The Alchemist Brewery, Ben & Jerry’s, Fast Company, Firmenich, MetLiveArts, Metropolis Ensemble, Upper Pass Beer, and more. His previous board service includes the Vermont Arts Council Board of Trustees and the inaugural Board of Directors of Clemmons Family Farm.
Photo by Isora Lithgow Creations
"Will Condry is a major mural artist in the great tradition of Mexico's Diego Rivera, Siqueiros, and others. He is a major, major artist."
—Jon Naar, internationally acclaimed photographer, author of the book "Faith of Graffiti"
Kasso’s Journey | State of the Arts
“Colors” | Will Kasso Condry | TEDxMiddlebury
“Will Kasso Condry impresses in every way. For Condry, it is abundantly clear that the form and content of his work matters just as much as how, why, and for whom he makes that work. Premised on deeply held ethical beliefs, his visually stunning, highly chromatic, labor-intensive drawings and paintings take their inspiration from Afrofuturism, a philosophy that privileges Black agency, creativity, and excellence, forging a political and aesthetic language that serves as a corrective to past and present wrongs. In the works submitted for the Vermont Prize, Condry uses acrylic, ink, and marker to conjure up new, extraordinary forms of Black humanity. Adapting African traditions, his “more than humans” are almost always armored and ornamented and immersed in fantastical, otherworldly landscapes. Together they amaze and inspire. Condry’s larger practice is equally worthy of accolades, marrying as it does a commitment to pedagogy, collaboration, social justice, and community engagement. Condry is an exceptional artist doing exceptional work in and for Vermont.”
— Kelly Baum, former Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Curator of Contemporary Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
