Rotimi Fani-Kayode Explores the Studio as a Safe Space

The Lagos-born photographer captures Black queer life and love in a series of rich portraits.

While ART X Lagos unfolds in Nigeria, London’s Autograph is set to unveil a powerful solo exhibition showcasing the work of Lagos-born photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayode. In a magnetic display of black and white portraits, The Studio – Staging Desire honors the sanctuary of the artist’s Brixton studio, which served as a creative haven for Black queer self-expression.

Through a series of archival photographs and never-before-seen works, the exhibition follows Fani-Kayode as he ventured into spiritual worlds of intimacy, pain and fantasy. From 1983 until his death in 1989, the studio became a home for love and freedom amidst the racial and cultural bustle of London. Coded within sharp gestures, poses and a haunting sense of longing, his work captures a language of complex desire and difference.

A seminal figure in British contemporary art, Fani-Kayode invited audiences to explore new dimensions of identity and the self. Braiding Yoruba spirituality with a bold approach to portraiture, “these photographs reveal what it meant for Fani-Kayode to negotiate the status of ‘outsider’, turning this into the generative force that has defined the artist’s practice,” the gallery writes in a statement.

The Studio – Staging Desire will be on view at Autograph’s gallery in Shoreditch, London from October 31, 2024 through March 22, 2025.

Autograph
Rivington Place
London EC2A 3BA
UK