Tiwani Contemporary is pleased to present new paintings by London-based artist Joy Labinjo for Art Basel Miami Beach OVR 2020. These works will also be on view in a physical exhibition at the gallery in London from Dec 3 2020 until Jan 6 2021. The presentation is the first showing of her work at an art fair following her debut museum solo at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, UK (October 2019).
Earlier this year, the artist began a new body of work during the pandemic lockdown in the UK as mass protests around the Black Lives Matter movement surged around the world. Considering these events, the presentation and exhibition furthers her explorations around the role of identity, political voice, power, race, community and family in contemporary experience. The artist also presents for the first-time new work that departs from mainstream histories of Blackness in Britain - uncovering little-known figures and events in Western modernity.
Joy Labinjo’s large-scale figurative paintings often depict intimate and rare scenes of historical and contemporary life – both real and imagined, both domestic and everyday – often based on figures appearing in personal imagery that include her everyday life and people around her, family photographs, found images and archival material. Her work presents fresh and arresting compositions of colour, pattern and motifs – key signatures of Labinjo’s work. Fundamentally, at the heart of Labinjo’s practice is a bold interest in storytelling and ultimately, people’s lives.
Exploring multiple modes of representation including abstraction, naturalism, flatness and graphic patterns, Labinjo’s ‘collage aesthetic’ comprises an eclectic visual vocabulary and mixed painterly techniques which echo her experience of multiple identities – growing up Black, British, Nigerian in the 90s and early 00s.
Her work is currently on view in the 2020 Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy, London. She was awarded the Art on The Underground public mural commission for Brixton Underground Station in London that goes on view in late 2021.
Recent Press
Financial Times | November 2020
The Guardian Observer New Review | November 2020
I-D Magazine | July 2020
Bomb Magazine | February 2020
Artsy | February 2020
