A new body of work focusing on everyday Black life
Tiwani Contemporary is delighted to present Joy Labinjo: Beloved, Take What You Need, its inaugural exhibition at its new 24 Cork Street, Mayfair gallery, 12 October - 11 November 2023.
This new body of work reflects the personal and professional changes Labinjo has been through in the five years since Tiwani Contemporary first presented her work. Featuring intimate scenes and exploring themes of love, relationships, and family dynamics, Labinjo’s large-scale figurative paintings present fresh and arresting compositions of colour and explore multiple modes of representation including abstraction, naturalism, and flatness.
Drawing inspiration from found images and her own personal photographs, the suite of paintings demonstrates Joy Labinjo’s maturing practice. The subjects of these paintings, both real and imagined, are lively groups of friends and family at leisure, enjoying the simple pleasure of being in each other’s company. Together, the paintings explore the experience of communing: From a group of men at a barbershop, to children playing together to friends swimming in nature. While the paintings depict a range of disparate scenarios, the subject matter is unified by each individual painting's relationship to the exhibition’s title, and the artist's practice of working on several paintings at the same time. For Labinjo, the paintings she is drawn to when she gets to the studio each day reflect what she instinctively needs to nourish her at that moment in time and the kind of intimacy she is craving. Beloved, Take What You Need is Labinjo speaking to herself, and to anyone that feels the same as she.
Joy Labinjo: Beloved, Take What You Need: 12 October - 11 November 2023
Artist's Talk: 14 October, 3pm
Further information: Tiwani Contemporary