" Sourced from a combination of taken and found imagery, the paintings rely on the sense of the familiar and the hope that a wide range of people will see themselves in the works, feeling welcome to spend time with them. Labinjo often depicts intimate moments, both real and imagined, and often based on figures appearing in family photographs, found images and historical or archival material. In the past, she has explored themes such as identity, political voice, power, Blackness, race, history, community and family and their role in contemporary experience. Her distinctive painting style presents fresh and arresting compositions of colour, pattern and motifs. Fundamentally at the heart of Labinjo’s practice is a bold interest in storytelling and, ultimately, people’s lives." -Snippet from the exhibition.

"Focused on the intricate dynamics of visibility and authority, "Talking Back to Power" proposes a reclamation of black visibility. C. Rose Smith’s evocative black and white self-portraits revolve around the white cotton shirt, staged at locations affiliated with the wealth generated from cotton plantations in the Southern United States of America. During the 19th century, cotton was one of the most lucrative global commodities. Built on the forced labor of millions of enslaved Africans, plantation complexes that grew, cultivated and sold this crop formed the basis of monumental economic advancement and progress. Throughout her photographs, Smith fashions a crisp white button-up shirt, a potent emblem of both exploitation and respectability. She poses in opulently decorated antebellum homes in Tennessee, South Carolina and Louisiana, by-products of the wealth amassed by the owners of cotton plantations. Entrenched throughout these buildings is the lingering spectre of the magnitude of violence and anguish that is inextricably linked to chattel slavery. Despite many undergoing meticulous restorations and now serving as tourist destinations, these buildings bear witness to the enduring legacy of human suffering." - Press Release

"A thought-provoking exploration of rebellion and transformation, Deadweight comprises four large-scale sculptural works which continue the artist’s interest in creating new worlds for ‘Blackness’ and fascination with the metaphoric potency and regenerative power of the sea. The title Deadweight derives from a nautical term which collapses everything on a ship into a single unit which determines the ship’s ability to float and function as intended. White deliberately inverts this, offering disruption as opposed to stability – a reckoning with the tipping point of the ship to offer the possibility of emancipation through abolition. The works combine force and fragility: undulating angular structures formed from metals manipulated into forms evocative of anchors, a ship’s hull, mammal carcasses or skeletons – lost or abandoned material forms that, through White’s treatment, become symbols of defiance." -Excerpt from Press Release.

"In a new exhibition this autumn, Autograph will present never-before-seen works from the artist Rotimi Fani-Kayode's wider practice. These photographs delve into ideas of theatre, performance, studio and community – depicting radical forms of black bodily expression. During a tragically brief career, Fani-Kayode used photography to explore themes of race, sexuality, spirituality and the self. He masterfully staged and crafted portraits visualising black queer self-expression. Prominent in the Black British art scene in the 1980s, he remains an important figure in art history." - Autograph

"Incorporating the Ethiopian Modernist tradition of including Amharic alphabetic script in paintings, Tadesse interprets the human figures as a type of lettering, the figures echoing the vertical loops and angles of Amharic text. In this way, the subjects of his work can be perceived as their own type of meaning makers, not merely passive beings, but actively participating in the creation of their environment. In the artist’s words, ‘through repetition they have become my symbols, my language.’" -Exhibition Excerpt

"An Awkward Relation is a new exhibition from interdisciplinary artist Sonia Boyce (b.1962, London, UK). It is conceived to be in dialogue with the exhibition of Brazilian artist Lygia Clark, The I and the You, showing at the Gallery concurrently. The exhibition brings together a number of pivotal and rarely seen works to explore themes of interaction, participation and improvisation – all of which have played a definitive role in Boyce’s practice since the 1990s and reflect a shared interest with many of the radical approaches that Clark pioneered in her own work. Boyce was introduced to Clark’s work in the 1990s and felt a strong synergy with the Brazilian artist’s experiential and participatory practice. An Awkward Relation explores the feelings of both involvement and uneasiness intrinsic to an approach that invites visitors to engage, touch and experience artworks and their surroundings in new and unscripted ways. The title of the exhibition is indicative of this complex, often difficult, relationship between artists, works and audiences. It also recognises that while there are similarities between Boyce and Clark’s work, there are also clear differences, which necessarily, and inevitably, stem from the very different artistic, geographical and socio-political contexts in which the artists were working, as well as the specific intentions behind what they were doing." -Excerpt from Press Release

"Larkin Durey is delighted to present an exhibition of new work by Lavar Munroe. This is the artist’s tenth solo show with the gallery. Lavar Munroe works in the spirit of an anthropologist, studying the human condition via intensive, immersive travels across the African continent and a similar sense of discovery in his studio. His work attests to the power of storytelling, folklore, fable and community, illuminating the threads that weave us together across culture, time and geography, and spark our collective imagination."-Excerpt from Press Release

1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair is the first and only international art fair dedicated to showcasing visual artists of the African Diasporas. 1-54 London is the finale of the tri-annual art fair, talking place at Somerset House; the fair will be held in the West, East, South and Embankment galleries. 1-54 London will coincide with Frieze London.

Inspired by David Abram's 1996 book The Spell of the Sensuous, Each Place Its Own Mind examines how human consciousness has become detached from the natural world. The exhibition presents historic works alongside new commissions, offering distinct experiential perspectives that challenge the Enlightenment-era separation of culture and nature. Highlights include Mirtha Dermisache's asemic writing, Anna Hulačová's sculptures incorporating honeycomb interiors, and Bronwyn Katz's installations utilizing natural materials like iron ore and rose quartz. Collectively, these works invite viewers to reconsider the interconnected web of experiences shared by all entities within a given space.

Derrick Adams’ Situation Comedy delves into the intersection of humor, identity, and representation, drawing inspiration from television sitcoms and their influence on collective memory. His signature use of vibrant acrylics and fabric collages transforms familiar scenes of domestic life, social gatherings, and leisure into layered reflections on race, performance, and personal agency. Adams plays with the comedic structure of conflict and resolution, using fragmented compositions that suggest both the comfort and complexity of these narratives. By reimagining sitcom aesthetics within the fine art space, Situation Comedy offers a fresh perspective on how entertainment shapes cultural consciousness and the portrayal of Black life.

Noah Davis’s deeply atmospheric paintings explore everyday Black experiences through a lens that is both tender and surreal. Influenced by artists like Peter Doig and Francis Bacon, Davis developed a distinctive style where figures dissolve into hazy, fragmented landscapes, evoking memory, spirituality, and the passage of time. His works—often depicting family life, urban interiors, and moments of solitude—carry an emotional weight that lingers beyond the canvas. Alongside his paintings, the exhibition highlights Davis’s groundbreaking role in establishing the Underground Museum a space dedicated to making museum-quality art accessible to underserved communities in Los Angeles. This exhibition not only honors Davis’s artistic genius but also his dedication to cultural accessibility and social change.

Belonging In-Between marks the opening of Tiwani Contemporary Lagos's 2025 exhibition program, featuring new works by London-based artist Emma Prempeh. The exhibition delves into Prempeh's exploration of landscape as both physical and emotionally charged sites, drawing upon the memories and experiences of her grandmother and mother, Carmen. Central to the series is Carmen's return to St. Vincent, capturing the emotional landscapes tied to familial experiences and diasporic belonging Prempeh's paintings are characterized by their rich, cinematic quality, often depicting figures, interiors, and natural elements that blur the lines between memory and reality. She employs materials such as oil, acrylic, and schlag metal—a brass alloy imitative of gold leaf—which oxidizes over time, symbolizing the fluidity and transformation of memory.

The sculptures, assembled as peaceful emissaries from the spirit realm, invite introspection during Venus retrograde—mirroring her withdrawal from the sky and re-emergence. Inanna (the Sumerian Venus) guides the underlying narrative of descent, challenge, release, and calm. Lewis employs experimental and playful processes in mask-making, sourcing natural pigments (beetroot, hibiscus, turmeric) and applying repurposed textiles, beads, leather, and fragments from earlier works. These materials underscore renewal and multi-layered storytelling. The exhibition’s title echoes a chant meant to comfort Inanna during her descent: “The ways of the underworld are perfect.” These intangible, body-less talismans embody chaotic yet magnetic energies tied to mythic, psychological, and spiritual realms.

Pindell's revolutionary approach extends beyond personal healing to collective awakening. Her systematic deconstruction of traditional compositional structures mirrors her dismantling of racial and gender hierarchies, revealing how artistic conventions can be reimagined to serve more inclusive narratives. Through painstaking accumulation and subtraction, addition and erasure, she creates works that pulse with the rhythm of survival and the poetry of persistence. "I endeavoured to change the circle in my mind... to take the sting out of the memory," Pindell has said. This exhibition reveals how she has done far more than remove the sting—she has transformed it into honey, creating art that is both deeply personal and universally resonant, proving that our greatest wounds can become our most powerful sources of creation.