Joy Labinjo: Ode To Olaudah Equiano

Circumstances concerning artist Joy Labinjo’s life are coming up doubles lately. In the past two months, not only does she have exhibitions on two continents, the public will learn about her art and also get a lesson in history as a bonus.

This new show Chapter Gallery features historical paintings which disprove the fallacy that Black people first came to the UK with the Windrush generation of the late 1940s. From reading David Olusoga’s Black And British: A Forgotten History, she learned of Olaudah Equiano, whose memoir – published in 1789 and one of the first in Europe by a Black African writer – and life story were the inspiration for this presentation.

Woon Art Prize winner Labinjo is filling the gap of the absence of images of Equiano, and other Black contemporaries in England, with her work of intimate portraits and other representations of their journeys from Africa to England, re-presenting their stories in the 21st century.

words RHONDA LEE REALI