Now that Black History Month is over, is there still the same appreciation for Black Art? Let’s face it - for Black creatives, October often brings a surge in inboxes and impressions from art enthusiasts, collectors and institutions, but just as often, this support dwindles once the month concludes.
It should go without saying, that the celebration of Black artists shouldn’t be limited to a single month. True allyship means continued recognition and engagement beyond performative acts.
With that in mind, here are six exhibitions featuring talented Black artists you can still catch in London this November. Let’s keep the momentum going and support good talent all year-round.
1. Forest Figures – Alexis Peskine
Where: October Gallery, 24 Old Gloucester St, WC1N 3AL
Dates: Until November 9, 2024
Forest Figures at October Gallery presents a captivating exploration of ancestral African spirituality through the intricate mixed-media portraits of Alexis Peskine. This solo exhibition, showcases Peskine’s innovative technique of hammering nails into wooden canvases, inspired by spiritually significant Congolese Minkisi power figures. Enhanced with precious Japanese oxidized metals, his works radiate with themes of resilience and unity, drawing on the sacred Yoruba Orisha spirits and incorporating natural forms like tree trunks, shells, and herbs.
2. 'Slippage' - The Caribbean in flux – Group Exhibition
Where: 198 Railton Road, London, SE24 0JT
Dates: Running through December 15, 2024
This exhibition brings together works by four Caribbean artists who use self-portraiture to examine the personal and societal dimensions of identity within post-colonial societies. Through a range of mediums, including drawing, painting, and digital art, each artist offers a unique lens on the burdens we carry, the cultural narratives we shape, and the societal structures in which we exist. Cheddas combines drawing and sculpture with everyday materials like cement and breeze blocks, exploring themes of identity, gender, and access to land. Bailey uses self-portraiture to critique Jamaica’s justice system and the lingering colonial imprints within it. Meanwhile, Warner employs digital media and AI to reimagine historical archives, envisioning an alternate past to suggest new futures.
3. Making a Rukus – Rukus Archive Residency Exhibition
Where: Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 1LA
Dates: Ongoing until January 19, 2025
Curated by artist and filmmaker Topher Campbell, this new exhibition celebrates Black LGBTQ+ creativity, activism, and pride, showcasing works from the 1970s to today. Drawing from the rukus! archive—a living, dynamic collection inspired by the spirit of "causing a ruckus"—the exhibition presents archival materials, contemporary art, and new commissions, capturing the joy, resilience, and creative power of Black LGBTQ+ communities in Britain. Highlights include a restaging of Evan Ifekoya’s interactive installation, A Score, A Groove, A Phantom, A rukus!, which transforms the space into an immersive club-like environment.
4. Ten.8 Revisited: Focus on Legacy, Black Image and Body Politics
Where: The Photographers’ Gallery, 16-18 Ramillies St, W1F 7LW
Dates: Through February 23, 2025
Ten.8 in Focus celebrates the legacy of Ten.8, a groundbreaking photography journal that began in 1978 as a creative hub for photographers from the West Midlands. The exhibition, hosted by The Photographers’ Gallery, centers on two influential issues, Black Image (1984) and Body Politics (1987), showcasing how Ten.8 became a critical platform for examining race, power, and representation in photography. Lauded by cultural theorist Stuart Hall for its exploration of the political implications of visual representation, Ten.8 fostered dialogue on the social impact of images, especially in relation to the Black British experience.
5. emajndat – Lauren Halsey
Where: Serpentine Galleries, Kensington Gardens, W2 3XA
Dates: Ongoing until March 02, 2025
emajendat, Lauren Halsey’s first UK solo exhibition at Serpentine South Gallery, transforms the gallery into a vibrant “Funk garden” that merges urban Los Angeles with Kensington Gardens. This immersive installation is inspired by Halsey’s roots in South Central LA, where she preserves and reimagines neighbourhood iconography tied to Black culture, queer identity, and community resilience. Drawing on the layered rhythms of funk music, Halsey’s installation features a prismatic floor made of CDs, life-sized figures, funkmounds, sand dunes, and a live water fountain—evoking her neighbourhood’s energy. Alongside her signature vignettes, her first moving image work is on display, extending her exploration of space, memory, and Black heritage.
6. The Studio: Staging Desire – Rotimi Fani-Kayode
Where: Autograph Gallery, Rivington Place, EC2A 3BA
Dates: Until March 22, 2025
This exhibition showcases rare, unseen works from the late Nigerian-British artist, highlighting his transformative approach to Black queer identity. Running from October 31, 2024, to March 22, 2025, The Studio: Staging Desire immerses viewers in Fani-Kayode’s Brixton studio, a sanctuary where he explored desire, intimacy, and the fluidity of identity. Through staged portraits that blend Yoruba spiritual symbols with gestures and poses that evoke longing, Fani-Kayode’s work challenges norms and embraces self-redefinition. His photography, marked by a radical vision and a celebration of Black queer life, became a pioneering statement on navigating societal “outsider” status.
7. Spirit of Lagos – Abi Morocco Photos
Where: Autograph Gallery, Rivington Place, EC2A 3BA
Dates: Until March 22, 2025
Spirit of Lagos celebrates the legacy of Abi Morocco Photos, one of Lagos’s most iconic photographic studios, which thrived under the creative partnership of John and Funmilayo Abe from the 1970s to 2006. This exhibition spotlights the studio's formative years in the 1970s—a transformative period in Nigerian history—when the Abes captured the vibrancy and elegance of Lagosians amid Nigeria's oil boom. Known for their unique approach in a male-dominated industry, the couple combined striking elements like chequerboard floors
and hand-painted backdrops with the dynamism of Lagos’s urban landscape.
8. The 80s: Photographing Britain
Where: Tate Britain, Millbank, SW1P 4RG
Dates: Until May 05, 2025
Featuring groundbreaking contributions from the Black arts movement, queer artists, the South Asian diaspora, and female photographers, the show highlights the diversity of voices that emerged in response to the Thatcher years. Viewers will discover works published in influential photography journals like Ten.8 and Cameraworks, as well as initiatives like Autograph ABP and Hackney Flashers, that played a crucial role in elevating underrepresented perspectives. This retrospective offers a vivid look at how British photography shaped cultural narratives, giving visibility to marginalized communities and fueling a new era of socially engaged art.
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