In her painting a3 blackface # 65 (2003), Iona Rozeal Brown layers African - American and Japanese skin tones and fashions to create a comical yet strangely beautiful female hybrid.
The artist draws from a range of Japanese and African - American cultural trends in her «a3» (Afro - Asiatic Allegory) series: ukiyo - e, hip hop culture, blackface performance tradition, and ganguro.