Description:
Himid invites readers into her process through an intimate view of two new bodies of work that engage themes of power and memory
Published with The Contemporary Austin and The FLAG Art Foundation, New York.
Best known for her paintings that excavate the legacy of colonialism and expand the possibilities of Black representation, Lubaina Himid (born 1954) played a pivotal role in the British Black Arts Movement in the 1980s and became the first Black woman to win the Turner Prize in 2017. Published on the occasion of Himid's most recent solo exhibition for The Contemporary Austin's 2024 Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize, Make Do and Mend provides readers with a rare behind-the-scenes look into Himid's process for two new bodies of work: a suite of 10 Strategy Paintings depicting Black men and women seated around tables invested in problem-solving the dynamics of power, and 64 sculptural plank paintings, entitled Aunties, that formally evoke East African funerary objects and Postminimalism, as they pay tribute to the relationships between women.Review Quotes: Part of the difficulty with living in the time of the modern nation-state is that while you matter to those who manage it, you don't matter nearly as much as you do to yourself or to your intimates. Lubaina Himid, through her 'strategy paintings' on display in the exhibition 'Make Do And Mend, ' looks at the functionaries who wield this depersonalized, dehumanized perspective and, importantly, looks from their vantage point.--Seph Rodney "Hyperallergic"