On this occasion, Labinjo speculates imaginatively on the personal and informal inter- actions of writer abolitionists: Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797), Ignatius Sancho (1729- 1780), and Francis Barber (1723-1801) figures who with time have become more recog-nised as academic scholarship and mainstream public attention aggregates around their individual activities. Inspired by British artists such as Ozias Humphry RA (1742 – 9 March), George Moutard Woodard (1765–1809), and Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) Labinjo takes her compositional cues from their techniques and interests which on occasion gave attention to the Black presence of their own time.
Umar Rashid continues to hone a multidisciplinary, deeply satirical and fantastical interest in what occurs in the blurs between fact, fiction and time, consolidated in new paintings that end his 2021-22 series Ancien Regime Change, and directly references England in the work: Yes. The state is really deceased and you can tell by the actual writing on the wall, Or, The white cliffs of Dover is liveliest near the spill, 2022. Rashid has been developing the complex saga of the Frenglish Empire - a project which allows him to respond to the past, contemporary and future narratives that are geo- graphically pertinent, live and contestable.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Joy Labinjo
Joy Labinjo was awarded the Woon Art Prize in 2017. Her acclaimed commission ‘5 more minutes’, for the Brixton Underground Station in London, is on view until No- vember 2022. Joy Labinjo has been recently acquired by The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, where she will be a central contributor of an exhibition around slavery and abolitionism in 2023.
Recent exhibitions include: Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff (solo - 2022); Tiwani Contem- porary, Lagos, Nigeria (solo - 2022); Green Family Art Foundation (2021); Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL), Marrakech, Morocco (2021); Royal Academy, London, UK and The Breeder Gallery, Athens, Greece (both 2020); Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (solo- 2019); Bloc Projects, Sheffield, UK (solo - 2019); Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK, (2018).
Her work is included in the collections of The Fitzwilliam Museum (Camrbdige, UK), The Government Art Collection (UK), Minneapolis Institute of Art (Minneapolis, USA), Museum of Contemporary Art Al-Maaden (Marrakech, Marocco), Green Family Art Foundation (Dallas, USA), Pizzuti Collection (Ohio, USA), Perez Art Collection (Miami, USA), Harry David Art Collection, JP Morgan (London, UK), Soho House (Brixton, UK), Walter Vanhaerents Collection, MARe Museum (Romania), Yemisi Shyllon Museum (Lagos, Nigeria).
Umar Rashid
Umar Rashid was born in 1976 in Chicago, Illinois, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He earned his BA at Southern Illinois University in 2000.
For nearly two decades, the Los Angeles-based artist has documented the complex, historical and episodic saga of a fictional world superpower – the Frenglish Empire. Between 1658 and 1880, the Frenglish rule a transcontinental area comprised of dominions, protectorates and colonies including England, France, Turkey, India, Caribbean, Australia. Over the next two centuries, the Frenglish Empire engages in military endeavours, political intrigues, dynastic alliances and significantly, colonial exploits and enterprises that arise out of survivalist and ex pansionist imperial poli- cies. During its course, it comes up against a number of rival states agitating for power who emerge as significant players in the 18th century including its suzerain, the North American Belhaven Republic and a recalcitrant Dutch republic, the Batavian Empire.
Recent exhibitions include: MoMa PS1, NY, USA (2022); Cokkie Snoei, Rotterdam, NL (2022); Almine Rech, Paris, France (2022); Half Gallery, New York, USA (2021); Blum & Poe, LA, USA (2021); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA in partnership with The Huntington, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, USA, (2020); Univer- sity of Arizona, Tucson, USA (2018); University of Memphis, Memphis, USA (2017); Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, USA (2014); Wellin Museum of Art, Clinton, USA (2013); the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit, USA (2013); the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, USA (2013) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, USA (2012).
His work is included in the collections of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art, Jorge Perez Collection, The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, The Hudson River Museum, Nevada Museum of Art, Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamil- ton College, Conseil Regional de la Guadeloupe, The Brooklyn Museum, The Mount Holyoke Art Museum, The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 21C Museum, the Progres- sive Collection, the Nevada Museum of Art, The Artist Pension Trust, Harry David Collection, amongst others.
