Lubaina Himid

Installation view, Make Do and Mend, The Contemporary Austin, 2024. Photo: Alex Boeschenstein

For more than four decades, Lubaina Himid has created paintings, drawings and installations that uncover and celebrate marginalised histories, figures, and cultural expressions. Her work frequently redresses the art historical canon as a means to probe the (in)visibility of the Black body in the Western pictorial tradition. Countering such selective histories and narratives, her work presents stories, characters and voices through vibrant colours, lively forms, rich imagery, and diverse references from poetry.

Surprise Navigation, 2023, acrylic and charcoal on canvas, 183 x 183 cm

Installation view, So Many Dreams, Musée cantonal des beaux‑arts Lausanne, 2022 – 2023. Photo: Jonas Hänggi

Installation view, So Many Dreams, Musée cantonal des beaux‑arts Lausanne, 2022 – 2023. Photo: Jonas Hänggi

Installation view, So Many Dreams, Musée cantonal des beaux‑arts Lausanne, 2022 – 2023. Photo: Jonas Hänggi

Installation view, So Many Dreams, Musée cantonal des beaux‑arts Lausanne, 2022 – 2023. Photo: Jonas Hänggi

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Sometimes you don’t know what you’re getting until it’s too late, 2020, acrylic and charcoal on canvas, 244 x 183 cm

As with many interior scenes painted by Lubaina Himid, in Sometimes you don’t know what you’re getting until it’s too late (2020) Himid composes a group portrait blending a provisional sense of comfort and safety with a portentous, encroaching danger. A figure, occupying the centre of the painting, stands beside a kitchenette and holds a goldfinch.

Himid’s frequent inclusion of bird species gestures to their necessary pattern of migration, yet the goldfinch is also notable for its religious symbolism — understood as representing foreknowledge of the crucifixion, the goldfinch is often considered a ‘saviour’ bird as well as an emblem of endurance. In this instance, Himid’s goldfinch designates both a messenger of threatening augury and symbol of resilience, intensified by the figure’s protective handling and guarded gaze. Reinforcing this invisible jeopardy, two figures on the left of the composition hold one another and observe a passing event from an open window. Their posture suggests they are bidding farewell, withstanding the affects of enforced displacement. With its atmosphere of veracity, risk, loss, and persistence, Sometimes you don’t know what you’re getting until it’s too late continues Himid’s assertion of the fraught, complex and concealed histories of colonialism and the diaspora, making visible Black experience through a practice which sustains depiction, remembrance, exchange and transformation.

The Sweet Sharp Taste of Limes, 2017 – 2018, acrylic on banjo case, 38.5 x 99 x 14.5 cm

The Operating Table, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 152 x 152 cm

The Operating Table, is a continuation of a body of work comprising Six Tailors and Three Architects, (both 2019). In this painting, three women of colour are depicted in action, working together but not necessarily in agreement. As with Six Tailors and Three Architects, this work engages with the tradition of history painting in the Western canon, a genre in which epic and heroic scenes of European men are predominant. Himid’s work in this series ushers in diverse, active protagonists, expanding the gamut of narratives in painting.

Man in a Pyjama Drawer, 2021, acrylic on found wooden drawer, 54 x 46 x 5 cm

There Could Be an Endless Ocean, 2018, acrylic on paper, 77 x 107 x 3 cm [framed]

We Were Always Saying Goodbye, 2018, acrylic on paper, 77 x 107 x 3 cm [framed]

How Do You Spell Change?, 2018, acrylic on paper, 77 x 107 x 3 cm [framed]

Himid’s Kanga series draws from ‘kangas’—vibrant cotton rectangular fabric traditionally worn by East African women as a shawl, head scarf, baby carrier, and many other ways. Addressing the kangas’ association with identity and personal styling, Himid’s works are emblazoned with evocative slogans, bold patterns and vibrant colours.

Metal Handkerchiefs, 2019, acrylic paint on nine metal sheets, 49 x 53.5 cm [each]. Installation view, So Many Dreams, Musée cantonal des beaux‑arts Lausanne, 2022 – 2023. Photo: Jonas Hänggi

Hammer/Anchor from Metal Handkerchiefs, 2019, acrylic paint on nine metal sheets, 49 x 53.5 cm [detail]

Saw/Flag from Metal Handkerchiefs, 2019, acrylic paint on nine metal sheets, 49 x 53.5 cm [detail]

Hinge/Hook from Metal Handkerchiefs, 2019, acrylic paint on nine metal sheets, 49 x 53.5 cm [detail]

Right: Old Boat / New Money, 2019, acrylic on thirty-two wooden planks, 457 x 9.5 x 2 cm [each]. Installation view, Lubaina Himid, Tate Modern, 2021 – 2022. Photo: © Tate (Sam Day)

Old Boat / New Money, 2019, acrylic on thirty-two wooden planks, 457 x 9.5 x 2 cm [each]. Installation view, So Many Dreams, Musée cantonal des beaux‑arts Lausanne, 2022 – 2023. Photo: Jonas Hänggi

Old Boat / New Money, 2019, acrylic on thirty-two wooden planks, 457 x 9.5 x 2 cm [each, detail]

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Old Boat / New Money (2019) is an installation of thirty-two leaning wooden planks in varying shades of grey. The ship-like arrangement and the painted cowry shells evoke histories of the transatlantic slave trade, and more broadly the invisible legacies of colonial exploitation that remain inscribed in art and architecture.

British Fish (Feast Wagon), 2015, acrylic on wood, 160 x 220 x 100 cm

British Fish (Feast Wagon), 2015, acrylic on wood, 160 x 220 x 100 cm [detail]

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Chased Whip Scorpion (Feast Wagon), 2015, acrylic on wood, 140 x 95 x 145 cm

Chased Whip Scorpion (Feast Wagon), 2015, acrylic on wood, 140 x 95 x 145 cm [detail]

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Five Conversations, 2019. Part of En Plein Air. A High Line Commission. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of Friends of the High Line.

Five Conversations, 2019. Part of En Plein Air. A High Line Commission. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of Friends of the High Line.

Five Conversations, 2019, acrylic on found wooden doors, installation view, Frieze Sculpture 2020, London

Five Conversations, 2019, acrylic on found wooden doors, installation view, Frieze Sculpture 2020, London

Five Conversations, 2019, acrylic on found wooden doors, installation view, Frieze Sculpture 2020, London

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Swallow Hard: The Lancaster Dinner Service, 2007, acrylic paint on porcelain, dimensions variable. Installation view, Invisible Strategies, Modern Art Oxford, 2017. Photo: Ben Westoby

Swallow Hard: The Lancaster Dinner Service, 2007, acrylic paint on porcelain [detail]

Swallow Hard: The Lancaster Dinner Service, 2007, acrylic paint on porcelain [detail]

Swallow Hard: The Lancaster Dinner Service, 2007, acrylic paint on porcelain [detail]

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