Kaleem Jones is a Trinidadian American illustrator based in Chicago. Through heavy black ink, smudged textures, and bursts of saturated colour, he crafts bold, surreal portraits that probe identity, lived experience, and the emotional work of moving through circumstance.

This approach grew out of a career spent designing community and experiential programming. Today his studio work serves a similar purpose on a broader scale—using illustration as a tool for exploring identity, emotion, and shared experience while creating space for collective learning. Kaleem is working to collaborate with educators, cultural institutions, and neighborhood organizations to translate the practice into workshops, business, curricular visuals, and public projects that unite art, education, and community building.