<h2>IN THE LIGHT<br> 8 September - 1 October 2022 </h2><h2>IN THE LIGHT<br> 8 September - 1 October 2022 </h2><h2>IN THE LIGHT<br> 8 September - 1 October 2022 </h2><h2>DREAM NO SMALL DREAM: The Story of October Gallery<br>Available from our Book Store, £40 + P&P</h2>304 pages, full colour plates throughout. Edited by Gerard Houghton.<h2>EDDY KAMUANGA ILUNGA<br>EDITION PRINTS</h2>Now Available From Our Store
 

FORTHCOMING EXHIBITION

IN THE LIGHT:
Photographic works by James Barnor, Benji Reid, Alexis Peskine and Zana Masombuka

8 September - 1 October 2022
Alexis Peskine, Oxaláland 1, 2018.
Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle German Etching 310gsm paper on Dibond, 150 x 100 cm. Edition of 5 .
Jamea Barnor, Model with Tank and Driver, 1974.
Digital Fibre Print, 70 x 70 cm.
Edition of 10 plus 1 artist’s proof.
October Gallery presents In the Light, an exhibition featuring the artists James Barnor, Benji Reid, Alexis Peskine and Zana Masombuka.

Between its invention - almost 200 years ago - and the post-modern present, artists have adopted the unique medium of photography in an astonishing variety of ways and to very different ends. From the 1960s onwards, photography within the African Diaspora has been adapted as a medium to construct and contextualise post-colonial narratives; as a tool to condition socio-political change; and as a means of exploring and expressing the intrinsic complexities of identity itself. In the Light examines the inherent qualities of this ever-changing medium by focussing in on several contemporary artists who, by connecting photography to a pan-African aesthetic, are reimagining the medium while extending its reach into new and surprising areas.

View Exhibition Page
 
 

RECENT EXHIBITIONS

ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS
OG Education Exhibition

27 July - 30 July 2022
October Gallery is delighted to announce its annual Education Exhibition, Rock, Paper, Scissors. Co-curated with the OG Youth Collective, this show will feature a range of artworks which share an exploration of play. The exhibition will open on Wednesday 27th July 12.30 pm with an evening event at 6 pm with speeches by OG Youth Collective members taking place at 6:45 pm.

The theme of the presentation connects to activity games that are both inclusive and accessible. Rock Paper Scissors, encapsulates this approach, as it can be played anywhere, anytime. Using this well-known game as a starting point, contributing artists and groups expanded the concept to explore various materials. The exhibition will display the work of October Gallery Education over the past year, including new works from the OG Youth Collective, collaborative works by schools and community groups led by artist-educators, and artworks by the artist-educators themselves.

October Gallery Education connects community groups to a plurality of ideas and approaches to making art. The artworks in this year's Education Exhibition reflect the rich diversity of materials used by the international contemporary artists on show at October Gallery, such as cascading paper sculptures, striking figurative paintings and applied signs and glyphs to ceramic and paper forms. Rock, Paper, Scissors, highlights the unlimited scope of human artistic responses to the world around us when creative play is set in motion.

Rock, Paper, Scissors culminates with a special Family Art Day in the Gallery on Saturday 30th July 2022 from 10 am until 3 pm, which will give children and adults of ALL AGES the chance to do some hands-on art making with artist-educators, and OG Youth collective as well as explore the gallery, courtyard and add their own artwork contributions to various collaborative installations.

 

SOKARI DOUGLAS CAMP CBE:
Jonkonnu Masquerade

16 June - 23 July 2022
Sokari Douglas Camp, Sugar Cane John Canoe, 2021.
Mild steel acrylic paint, 155 x 33 x 26 cm.
Sokari Douglas Camp, Ruffle Jonkonnu, 2022.
Mild steel and acrylic paint, 264 x 124 cm.
October Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new works by Sokari Douglas Camp CBE that explore the masquerade of ‘Jonkonnu’ both within its Caribbean context and that of the broader African diaspora. This exhibition will coincide with her large-scale steel sculpture Europe Supported by Africa and America being displayed at the V&A to complement the Africa Fashion exhibition, which opens on the 2nd July, 2022. Two more of her larger than life-sized steel sculptures, again relating to the Jamaican Jonkonnu masquerade, will also form part of the Kensington and Chelsea Art Week, from the 23rd June - 3rd July, 2022.

These sculptures are a heady mix of outlandish characters who trace the overlapping links between still-surviving African masquerades, Caribbean carnival traditions and their most recent incarnation on the streets of London, during the colourfully costumed parades of the Notting Hill Carnival. In these exhilarating new works, Sokari Douglas Camp pays homage to the indomitable ‘carnival spirit’ still surviving despite all adversity, as her steel sculptures playfully combine different elements from the interrelated worlds of imaginative masquerades, festival processions and carnival parades. In so doing, they affirm the powerful contribution of the African and Caribbean cultures to the multicultural mix that energises the city of London today.

View Artist Page View Exhibition Page