My desire as an artist is to reach for and always point us towards the source of things; the truth; the essential, intrinsic quality of things; of identity through the vehicle of culture and nature; both inwards and outwards; harmony. Being partly based in – and having strong connections to – Nigeria in West Africa, I see richness and abundance in remnants of the past, in the present and a bit of the future In front of me everyday. It is my reality. 

I have a strong desire – personally and for others – to look deeper and draw back from a great source: Mother Africa and all the hidden treasures she holds within her to reimagine and recreate a new world befitting us. I am inspired by the Yoruba concept of the world/earth as a gourd/calabash. The calabash is a metaphor for the world and women – alluding to everything they incarnate into this earth, hold and carry which includes creation, fertility and life. 

The calabash has been cultivated and used for centuries; iti s a fruit that has been used and recreated into almost any utilitarian, domestic, musical and ritual, mystical tool within African culture. With its journey through time, it can reveal a lot about the past and reality of Mother Africa and also her future. The calabash is a symbol of Mother Africa in which the pre-colonial historical memory of people, culture and nature is stored, conjured, recalled and reimagined. 

I reimagined the world as a metaphorical calabash, filled with the abundant tropical rain forests of West Africa that sustains us; from where our cultures and way of life originate and by which we are inspired. It is a timeless utopia set in the past, elsewhere, here and there, within us, in the present and also in the future. It has just begun; everyday is new and Mother Africa is everywhere – within us, in the heavenly bodies, in the vegetation, in the custodian gourded forest spirits below; deliberating a new world, always conceiving, always pregnant and birthing new things for the greater good and lighting the path for others on a journey to find their way back.

My art is still life. Reflections, expressions and projections rooted in time, past/history and tradition, about Nostalgia; my longing and yearning for home and a lost, simple way of life and identity, a sort of paradise. It involves the integration of two different traditions and cultures with a history to re-imagine, re-contextualize and evoke visions, memories and myths of the Pre-colonial African past. It is also a celebration of the past and future as well as a mourning of the loss of a past way of life.

http://www.artnet.com/artists/foluso-oguntoye/

Glen is a Freelance Artist and has worked professionally as a Fine Artist/Scenic Artist in the corporate and design industry he also worked for The Artist Damien Hirst at his studio and he currently regularly completes commissioned Artworks for The Connor Brothers in London.

Kione Grandison is a London-based, multi-disciplinary artist with a strong cross-cultural practice that spans across various interests, influenced by her Jamaican, German and British heritage. Working across different forms and media, Grandison produces paintings, mixed-media collages, sculpture, hand- painted clothing and nail art. Her work is interested in numerous subjects – from the Black beauty industry, Jamaican music and dancehall culture to traditional African adornment and tools of ‘beautification’, such as the hair comb.

www.kionegrandison.com

The word abolitionist is usually synonymous with activists such as William Wilberforce, James Ramsey, John Wesley, and the Quakers. In the eighteenth century, Black abolitionists who had themselves been enslaved played a crucial role in abolition of slavery in the UK. Through their published autobiographies and public speaking, they helped to bring the British anti-slavery movement into the public eye. Their autobiographies highlighted the harsh realities of the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans, recounted from their point of view and thereby giving a voice to the voiceless. 

The artwork is a series of three portraits of the Black abolitionists; Olaudah Equiano, Mary Prince and Ottobah Cugoano who lived in the UK between 1745 and 1833. The work celebrates these abolitionists through the medium of photography and collage. This globe reimagines the three abolitionists in their European dress incorporated with aspects of their African heritage. 

The work employs fabric aesthetics into the storytelling ensemble of symbols within the artwork. In African cultures fabrics play an important role in showing where a person is from, their social status and identity. The work juxtaposes the European clothes and fabric worn by the abolitionists at the time against the indigenous fabrics of their African cultures. 

I was inspired by their bravery and determination in the face of great opposition in the social societal structures of their time. Through this work I hope to shine a light on the Black abolitionists in British society who were instrumental in shining a light on the atrocities on the trade in enslaved Africans.

Àsìkò is a conceptual photographer whose practice is anchored by the interpolation of his emotional experiences as a Nigerian born (and raised) British citizen, into a life-long, cultural and spiritual exploration of his Yoruba heritage. His work is motivated by a drive for greater self-awareness, authentic creative expression and therefore the development of a visual language that articulates new ways to understand the liberatory possibilities of African diasporic identity.

www.asiko-artist.com

Yinka Shonibare CBE RA (b. 1962) in London, UK studied Fine Art at Byam Shaw School of Art, London (1989) and received his MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London (1991). His interdisciplinary practice uses citations of Western art history and literature to question the validity of contemporary cultural and national identities within the context of globalisation. Through examining race, class and the construction of cultural identity, his works comment on the tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe, and their respective economic and political histories

www.yinkashonibare.com

Natasha Muluswela b. 1995 is a self-taught, Zimbabwean-born visual artist based in the United Kingdom. Muluswela studied French and Spanish at Nottingham Trent University, graduating in 2017. Her art centers around body positivity, exploring what it means to be deemed as beautiful in our society. She explores skin conditions such as vitiligo, stretch marks and ageism. Conditions which in some parts of the world are seen as shameful or have stigma tied to them. 

Muluswela wants to portray how society can deem these as imperfections. Yet to her, these unique markings are a natural part of being human. Additionally, Muluswela’s works explore the human condition of migration and what it means for Africans to take-up space away from the Diaspora. Through the use of symbolism through figures, she sheds light on the deep-rooted realities of racism, discrimination and marginalisation in a post-colonial oppressive system. Challenging her views on not only Africa’s political past and present but its potential and future through art. The subject matter of each artwork determines the materials used in the piece.

http://www.artxnatasha.com/

Echoes Talk Back is an evolution of my current series of large multilayered coloured pencil portraits titled ‘The Talk’ in which I distil complex conversations with my sitters about our shared experiences as Black men in today’s society. 

The globe features portraits of Black men from different generations. The men are in conversation with each other and themselves. Each portrait shows the passage and echoes of time with the overlay of fractured lines. The changing body language and expression of each sitter captures their response to our intimate exchange. How do we as Black men fit into this society we call home? How do we reconcile the idea of a home as a safe haven with the reality of a system that systematically fails us and our families? How do we begin healing from the trauma and chaos these febrile, wayward pencil lines represent? 

A starting point is the unity and connection that is possible through the dialogue we have with ourselves, each other and the wider community represented here by the infinity of the sphere.

As an abstract painter, I see the world through the prism of colour, which for me is a universal language that conveys through colour feeling, thereby evoking a consciousness of emotion.

Winston Branch is a British artist originally from Saint Lucia, the sovereign island in the Caribbean Sea. He still has a home there, while maintaining a studio in California.

http://www.winstonbranch.com/

The New Union Flag (NUF) reimagines the Union Jack and celebrates the communities that have contributed to the UK’s cultural legacy. Recreated with fabric designs from all over the world, the New Union Flag transforms the traditional Union Jack from an archetype of uniformity into a dynamic and celebrational ongoing performance of diversity. Whilst this flag started as a reflection of the UK’s colonial legacy, its design is ever-changing to reflect the ongoing changes in the makeup of this nation. 

For The World Reimagined, the 2D Flag was redesigned to fit the globe sculpture and the Reimagine The Future theme. 

From 2015, the New Union Flag has evolved every few months with the contributions of participants from various national and ethnic backgrounds. For three years it has engaged thousands of people through gallery exhibitions – Turner Contemporary, Tate Modern, South Bank Centre, People’s History Museum Manchester, Liverpool Museum, The Jewish Museum, Rich Mix and more – as well as through numerous cultural events, school visits, festivals, rallies, and workshops. 

The New Union Flag project includes photoshoots and video-recorded conversations with people who would like to see it adopted as the national flag – as well as others who don’t. The flag was part of social gatherings and demonstrations and was used in public space interventions. The New Union Flag project is in constant development and invitations for exhibitions, public talks and workshops are welcomed.

Gil Mualem-Doron is an award-winning socially engaged artist and photographer. In his work he investigates issues such as identity and diasporic spaces, social and racial justice, “place making” and transcultural aesthetics. While often using participatory and collaborative practices much of his work is informed also by his own complex identity and lived experiences of marginalisation. Not having formal fine-art training and with a background in architecture, photography, research and activism his work is trans-disciplinary and varied in media and scale. In the past decade his work included mass workshops and participatory photoshoots in Museums, galleries and community centres, street interventions, creation of agitprops as well as more traditional forms including studio photography, large scale installations and digital art. His work has been exhibited extensively in the UK, Europe and the Middle East including Tate Modern, the Turner Contemporary, Liverpool Museum and as well as in galleries and museums in the US, Netherlands, Berlin, Spain, Israel-Palestine and South Africa.

www.gmdart.com