Galleries 1 & 2: Yinka Shonibare CBE RA: African Spirits of Modernism, 4 June – 31 July 2021
30 Old Burlington Street, W1S 3AP: Leilah Babirye: Ebika Bya ba Kuchu mu Buganda (Kuchu Clans of Buganda) II, 4 June – 31 July 2021
Viewing Room: Marina Adams: Works on Paper (2016 – 2021), 4 June – 17 July 2021
We are delighted to reopen to the public this Friday 4 June with three solo presentations by Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, Leilah Babirye and Marina Adams. This opening coincides with the launch of the inaugural London Gallery Weekend, 4–6 June 2021, with visits until 8pm on the first night.
‘Yinka Shonibare CBE RA: African Spirits of Modernism’ comprises quilts, sculptures and a series of African masks that engage with the British-Nigerian artist’s own identity as a ‘post-colonial hybrid’. The works are accompanied by archival material that captures the burgeoning interest in African art in Paris during the 1920s. Playfully described by the artist as “Picasso in reverse”, this new body of work explores the relationship between African aesthetics and western modernist expression by juxtaposing icons of classical European antiquity with African artefacts from Picasso’s collection.
Leilah Babirye‘s first solo exhibition with the gallery and in Europe brings together large-scale ceramic works, wooden sculptures, masks and vibrant paintings on paper. Babirye’s powerful works are a testament to her fiercely intelligent approach to the transformation of found materials. Her oeuvre examines the legacies of British colonialism in Uganda and the traditional clan systems of the kingdom of Buganda, encompassing progressive ideas regarding alternative forms of kinship, community and LGBTQI activism.
Marina Adams presents the first instalment of her two-part solo exhibition with thirty paintings on paper all measuring 12 x 9 inches. Spanning over five years of her artistic practice from 2016 to 2021, these works reveal Adams’ bold exploration of colour and form on a condensed scale. This is Adams’ first solo exhibition at the gallery following the announcement of her representation in April 2020 and culminates with ‘Wild Is Its Own Way’, a presentation of large-scale paintings in September 2021.
There is no need to book your visit in advance. However, we will be operating with a limit to the number of people in the gallery at any one time and implementing physical distancing measures throughout.
