Joy Labinjo

Donated by the artist and Tiwani Contemporary

"Amanda Smith. Photo taken around 1876-77.

Location unknown. ABP Archive, London"

Born a slave, the subject of the present lot, from who this work takes its title, grew up in York county, Pa., after her father bought his own freedom and that of most of the family. She was educated mainly at home and at an early age began working as a domestic. An unhappy first marriage ended with the disappearance of her husband in the American Civil War. In 1863 she married James Smith and eventually moved with him to New York City. An experience of sanctification in 1868 led to her first hesitant attempts at preaching. By 1869 her husband and her children had died, and she was preaching regularly in African-American churches in New York and New Jersey.

Joy Labinjo is interested in how these characters, although anonymous, belong, as per dressing and manners, to a higher class, within a wider context of stereotyped conceptions of blackness in the UK, exemplified by the Windrush generation. Their anonymity is related to the dearth of access to black history in education and beyond.

The artist’s figurative paintings often depict intimate scenes of historical and contemporary life, both real and imagined and often based on figures appearing in personal and archival imagery that include family photographs, found images and historical material. In the past, she has explored themes including but not limited to identity, political voice, power, Blackness, race, history, community and family and their role in contemporary experience.  

Her work presents fresh and arresting compositions of colour, pattern and motifs: key signatures of Labinjo’s work. Fundamentally, at the heart of Labinjo’s practice is a bold interest in storytelling and ultimately, people’s lives. Exploring multiple modes of representation including abstraction, naturalism, flatness and graphic patterns, Labinjo’s ‘collage aesthetic’ comprises an eclectic visual vocabulary and mixed painterly techniques which echo her experience of multiple identities – growing up Black, British, Nigerian in the 90s and early 00s. 

Labinjo was awarded the Woon Art Prize in 2017. Her acclaimed commission for the Brixton Underground Station in London, UK, 5 more minutes, was on view throughout November 2022. Recent exhibitions include: The Body Electric, Larsen Warner Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden (group - 2024); Beloved, Take What You Need, Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK (solo - 2023); Real Families, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK (group - 2023); A Bout Des Mes Rêves,Vanhaerents Collection at Tripostale, Lille, UK (group - 2023); Africa Supernova, Kunsthal Kade, Amersfoort, Netherlands (group - 2023); Zeitz MOCAA, South Africa (group - 2022); Women's Art Collection, Cambridge, UK (group -2022); Ode to Olaudah Equiano, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, UK (solo - 2022), Full Ground, Tiwani Contemporary, Lagos, Nigeria (2022), Commission for The Becontree Estate Centenary 2021, London, UK (2021); Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL), Marrakech, Morocco (2021), Royal Academy, London, UK (2020), The Breeder Gallery, Athens, Greece (2020), Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2019); Bloc Projects, Sheffield, UK (2019); Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK, (2018)