Trent Tomengo: Art and educating the students of Florida



This year, I am spending time in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A., with Winsome Edwards, who created an art gallery, first in New York City, which she then moved to Orlando in 2003: the International Portfolio Gallery represents artists from all corners of the African diaspora: African-American, and Caribbean, as well as African artists from the continent.

Through her, I met Trent Tomengo, who prefers to be identified as Black American rather than African-American, as he hails from the United States since many generations. He is a Florida native and moved to Orlando when he was five years old.

Trent has always wanted to be an artist. As a child, he loved art; his mother owned a Bible illustrated with old Master paintings, which fascinated him. Drawing came easily to him. His first painting was of a pig, much beloved by his first grade teacher!

Above: Prelude to Joe, oil on canvas, 2015, 28" x 36"

In college, he majored in fine arts, earning degrees from Stetson College in Painting, and Seminole Community College. He started his career in graphic design, then he went on to painting, curatorship, and teaching. During this time, he continued growing as an artist. 

He has been a Professor (now Distinguished Professor) of Humanities at Seminole State College, in Central Florida, for twenty years. His students are varied: students who just started college, to professionals aiming to further or switch their career, and everybody in between.

Currently, his classes (African-American Humanities and African-American History) have been cancelled due to new legislation in Florida, where limitations are set on the teaching of African-American Humanities in state colleges. Other classes he taught, Renaissance and Baroque Humanities, and Medieval Humanities, were removed from core requirements and made electives. He now teaches Ancient Times through the Renaissance, and Art Appreciation. In the face of this censorship, in order to continue his mission as an educator, he created a podcast: We Who Are Dark, where he can continue speaking about Black art and culture. The podcast is done in collaboration with Neil Vaz, Ph.D., one of his former students, a historian who is now himself a Professor of African history, history of the African diaspora, and African diaspora history, also at Seminole State College (his current classes are: U. S. History 1877 to Present). In the podcast, they are not hampered by state laws. They discuss a variety of themes, but especially Black creativity: in the words of Professor Tomengo, “The theoretical framework for this podcast is going to be based on this book by Richard J. Powell called Black Art. It's the best treatment of black creativity that I've seen.”*

Of course Trent Tomengo's art is fascinating, we'll follow up in another post! Here are some images.

Joe Clarke, oil on canvas, 2016, 36" x 36". Joe Clarke is the founder of Eatonville, FL.

When Divinity Meets Itself, oil on canvas, 2019, 28" x 36"

Cindy, oil on canvas, 2019, 84" x 42"

Alligator Man, mixed media (oil and glitter), 2013, 22" x 50"


Additional links:

Faculty Spotlight: Humanities professor’s art know-how elevates courses

On Amazon

*From We Who Are Dark: Introduction, Jan 17, 2026

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/introduction/id1870377325?i=1000745808030&r=653

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Location: Sanford, FL, USA

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