The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. A listing in the OAR does not confer an endorsement, approval, or verification by the Ohio Arts Council.
For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
2024 Ohio Artist Registry Juried Exhibition
Dexter Komakaru
Professional Freelance Illustrator, Artist, and Multidisciplinary Visual Creator DXTROSEBio
Dexter Komakaru, known under his artist name DXTROSE, is a Freelance Illustrator and Artist working out of his home studio on ancestral and contemporary territory of the Shawnee, Potawatomi, Delaware, Miami, Peoria, Seneca, Wyandotte, Ojibwe and Cherokee peoples, known as CBUS, OH. As a 614 Native born-and-raised, he grew up in what’s known as the “bottoms” of the Hilltop Neighborhood near what is now known as the Franklinton Arts District. Viewing his story as his superpower, he uses the hardships he’s experienced as fuel for his creative fire.
Over the years he has built a career out of visual arts, content creation, and creativity around a mission of ART, ACTIVISM, ACCESS: sharing his insights, experiences, and education on art and activism with others by making the information, resources, and his work accessible.
With a multidisciplinary background and over half a decade of dedicated experience freelancing, he creates art inspired by the work he does in intersectional activism and community organizing around his experiences and identities as a second-generation immigrant, a Queer, Trans, Northern Native American and Mexican person.
It’s his hope that his work will be able to resonate with people who relate to the stories and hardships he’s experienced as well as provide inspiration to other aspiring artists for disrupting systemic cycles of harm and navigating a creative practice under capitalism from an abolitionist lens.
Since starting to share his work as DXTROSE in 2015, he’s been able to work with various clients, organizations, and companies on a wide variety of different projects and endeavors. He’s currently offering private sales, art licensing, and business-to-business/business-to-customer client work as well as working on upcoming personal projects. He also offers prints and originals of his artwork available for sale on his online store to those interested in helping to support his work. You can find his most recent work posted to his Instagram.
Artist Statement
With over five years of dedicated experience in illustration, art, and visual development, I work every day to create art that speaks to, engages and inspires others. Combining my passion for creating visual media with a message promoting intersectional activism, restorative justice, and finding beauty in the world around us. As a multi-passionate multidisciplinary artist, I create work inspired by the intersections of lived experience and identity within the human experience channeled through a moment-by-moment approach to each piece that I do.
Whether you have an idea for a custom piece of art, a large-scale project, illustration or design, I have the experience and ability to bring your concept to life.