A conversation with photographer, filmmaker, artist, and activist Misan Harriman. His work spans portraiture, film, and social documentary, capturing some of the most defining images of contemporary culture. The first Black man to photograph a September issue of British Vogue, Misan is known for his portraits of celebrities like Rihanna, Angelina Jolie, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as well as his documentation of global protest movements. His directorial debut, The After, starring Davi...
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A conversation with photographer, filmmaker, artist, and activist Misan Harriman. His work spans portraiture, film, and social documentary, capturing some of the most defining images of contemporary culture. The first Black man to photograph a September issue of British Vogue, Misan is known for his portraits of celebrities like Rihanna, Angelina Jolie, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as well as his documentation of global protest movements. His directorial debut, The After, starring Davi...
A conversation with photographer, filmmaker, artist, and activist Misan Harriman. His work spans portraiture, film, and social documentary, capturing some of the most defining images of contemporary culture. The first Black man to photograph a September issue of British Vogue, Misan is known for his portraits of celebrities like Rihanna, Angelina Jolie, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as well as his documentation of global protest movements. His directorial debut, The After, starring Davi...
A conversation with Los Angeles-based artist Umar Rashid, who blends historical research with world-building. Umar’s practice -- which includes painting, sculpture and writing -- engages with colonial history, global interconnections, and alternative historical narratives, focusing on the period from 1648 to 1880. His work often incorporates elements of time travel and cosmic exploration. In this episode, Alayo and Umar discuss his upbringing on the South Side of Chicago in an artistic family...
A conversation with Lagos-based artist Modupeola Fadugba, whose multidisciplinary practice spans installation, painting, film, and social engagement. Modupeola's work often explores subjects of race and pedagogy, as seen in her acclaimed 'Synchronized Swimmers' series and her Emmy-winning documentary on the all-Black senior synchronised swimming group, the Harlem Honeys and Bears. Modupeola's latest exhibition ‘Of Movement, Materials and Methods’ — on view at Gallery 1957 in London until June...
A conversation with Philadelphia-based artist Qualeasha Wood, whose multidisciplinary practice spans textiles, digital media, and performance. Qualeasha’s work investigates Black femme identity, Catholic iconography, and the psychological effects of the internet, often rendered through intricately tufted and woven tapestries. Her recent solo exhibition Malware at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in London presents a series of glitch-heavy, hyper-pixelated works that reflect on digital anxiety, image...
A conversation with Béninois artist Roméo Mivekannin, who works primarily in painting and installation. Roméo’s practice centres on marginalised Black figures in canonical European paintings, which he reimagines with his own self-portrait. His first exhibition in Italy, Black Mirror, at Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia is on until the 27th of July. It features a new series of paintings on black velvet, marking a new chapter in his practice. In this episode, Alayo and Roméo discuss subjec...
A conversation with Victor Ehikhamenor. Victor is a multidisciplinary artist based in Nigeria; his practice encompasses painting, installation, writing and unique forms of mark making, such as perforation. On the occasion of his solo exhibition ‘The Enigma of Time Remembered’ at Maruani Mercier gallery in Brussels in 2024, Victor and Alayo discuss his life and practice. Victor shares how his upbringing in Edo State, surrounded by rich cultural traditions of art-making, has influenced his work...
A conversation with Paris-born artist Tabita Rezaire. Rezaire is a new media artist, doula and cacao farmer based in French Guiana. On the occasion of her solo exhibition, Calabash Nebula at Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Rezaire has created an immersive series of installations, which are inspired by and honour the Yoruba water spirit Yemoja. Yemoja is the main water spirit of the West African Yoruba religion, who is considered the mother of rivers and oceans and the mother of all...
A conversation with Botswana-born artist Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum. Sunstrum’s practice spans painting, drawing, and installation and is characterized by detailed narrative world-building, and figures who resemble the artist herself but are not self-portraits. On the occasion of her commission for The Curve at London’s Barbican, Pamela has created an installation titled 'It Will End in Tears', which consists of a series of interconnected film sets, inspired by mid-century colonial settings lik...
This episode is a live recording of a panel discussion which interrogated the position of so-called “Black Figuration” – in other words, work by Black artists which portrays Black figures – today. Alayo Akinkugbe is joined by writer John Baptiste Oduor, artist Anya Paintsil and curator, educator, writer and director of La Foundation for the Arts (LAFA), Chantel Akworkor Thompson. The discussion was held at Opera gallery in June 2024, in connection with an exhibition Alayo curated there, calle...
A conversation with Kenturah Davis, an American artist who splits her time between California and Accra, Ghana. Kenturah’s work explores an interplay of portraiture and design and spans drawing, textile, sculpture, and performance. On the occasion of her exhibition ‘clouds’ at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, Kenturah speaks to me about her exploration of shadows and metaphysics, her desire to create works of art that encompass the viewer the way that music encompasses a listener, an...
A conversation with Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama whose installations address themes of labour, circulation of goods and globalisation, and whose practice is charactarised by the use of materials collected from urban environments, which he manipulates and transforms in collaboration with communities in Ghana. On the occasion of his permanent site-specific installation at Palazzo Diedo in Venice Three Little Birds, and his exhibition If These Are The Things at APALAZZOGALLERY in Bresc...
A conversation with pioneering Ghanaian-born British artist, John Akomfrah on the occasion of his commission for the British Pavilion, at the 60th Venice Biennale. Akomfrah discusses early childhood memories in both Ghana and the UK, his love of filmmaking as a medium, and his experience with national representation at the Venice Biennale, having been part of the Ghanaian pavilion in 2015, and now being the sole artist to represent Britain in 2024. This episode also features a conversation wi...
A conversation with artist Woody de Othello, whose practice spans sculpture, painting and drawing. Woody’s first UK solo exhibition, 'Faith Like a Rock ' is on until the 13th of April 2024 at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. Woody recreates everyday, inanimate objects and transforms them into humanoid characters which elicit different emotions. The exhibition unfolds as an immersive mise-en-scène, with ceramic sculptures, paintings and drawings inhabiting each room. In this conversation, Woo...
A conversation with Gideon Appah, a Ghanaian artist who draws on childhood memories, mythology and west African landscapes. This conversation was recorded on the 24th of March 2023. Our discussion centres on specific paintings in his first UK solo exhibition with Pace gallery, London in 2023 titled How to Say Sorry in a Thousand Lights. In this conversation, Gideon speaks to Alayo about his childhood and studies in Accra, the influences he takes from West African cinema and music videos...
A conversation with Ayo Akingbade, an artist, writer and director based in London. She has directed 17 short films, which include documentary, fiction and those that blur the lines between the two. In this conversation, Ayo speaks to Alayo about their shared heritage and similar names, growing up in Hackney, her love of fashion & textiles and her exhibition ‘Show me the world Mister’, which is currently touring the UK. It was first shown at the Chisenhale Gallery, London and has tra...
A conversation with Na Chainkua Reindorf a Ghanaian artist who works across textile, painting, sculpture and installation. Her work is heavily influenced by the rich cultural history of West African, particularly Ghanaian, textiles, from the weaving traditions of Kente, to Fante Asafo flags and Yoruba masquerade dress (aka Egungun). Chainky has also garnered a following on her carefully curated Instagram page, which consists of fashion she has worn and art she has seen, organised in an ...
A conversation with Isabel Okoro, a Nigerian photographer and filmmaker based between Toronto, Canada and Lagos, Nigeria. Isabel’s practice is firmly rooted in world-building, she has invented a world called Eternity, which she describes as a “normatopia”. Normatopia is a word that Isabel coined to mean a space that exists at the sweet spot between harsh reality and utopia. She self-published her first monographic book in 2022, called Friends in Eternity and has produced work for clients incl...
A conversation with Tesfaye Urgessa, a painter based between Nurtingen, Germany and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Tesfaye's paintings are figurative, fleshy and dynamic. There is often -- amidst the business of his paintings -- an anchor point in the form of a piercing gaze. In this episode, Tesfaye speaks to Alayo from his studio in Nurtingen, about his life and his practice. *apologies for the low sound quality, Tesfaye's studio is large and echoey* Keep up with us on instagram: Tesfaye: @tes...
A conversation with Anya Paintsil, a Welsh and Ghanaian artist based in the UK. Anya creates textiles using techniques of rughooking and embroidery. She often includes human and synthetic hair as a material and has explained that she finds many similarities between the act of weaving or “doing” afro hair and textile production techniques. In this episode, Anya speaks to Alayo about her life and her practice. Keep up with us on instagram: Anya: @anyapaintsil Alayo: @ablackhistoryofart&nbs...
A conversation with photographer, filmmaker, artist, and activist Misan Harriman. His work spans portraiture, film, and social documentary, capturing some of the most defining images of contemporary culture. The first Black man to photograph a September issue of British Vogue, Misan is known for his portraits of celebrities like Rihanna, Angelina Jolie, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as well as his documentation of global protest movements. His directorial debut, The After, starring Davi...
