Black art has always been around, like the Harlem Renaissance which came about in the 1920s. We have always existed within this creative space and will continue to do so.”
Author: Christabel Johanson
Dareece Walker: Black Fathers Matter
Race, gender and art have been complex topics to pursue but artists like Walker find this a vital opportunity to express their message, celebrate black masculinity and protest the lack of “accurate representation of black males in media…”
Christabel Johanson in conversation with the American artist Dareece Walker
Black Fathers Matter, Series III
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Much like the work of authors, these are character studies of timeless protagonists who never existed but can have as much impact on audiences as literary heroes. Interestingly Yaidom-Boakye is also a writer, so she understands how to structure a story. Her pictures are a narrative without words.
Christabel Johanson on the British-Ghanaian artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Vigil For A Horseman (detail), 2017
Black Modernism
Black Modernism was a development that was finding a home for itself in contemporary white culture. Not only did it stimulate wonderful movements like the Harlem Renaissance, it exposed society to black experience and the shortcomings in black rights. As an artistic expression Black Modernism continues to develop and by doing so creates contemporary expression for a new generation.
Christabel Johanson on Black Modernism
Laser Segall, Perfil de Zulmira, 1928.
Sonia Boyce
“In the Castle of My Skin starts with the metaphor of skin as a covering, a surface, a barrier, a marker of identity and a connector between internal and external worlds. This builds on the intersection of diverse histories as a recurring theme in Boyce’s work…Boyce is fascinated by moments of serendipity that occur when people are brought together without a script.”