UK-based artist Joy Labinjo will undertake a four-week residency at G.A.S. Foundation in Lagos this April. Known for her dynamic large-scale figurative paintings, Joy's work draws from personal and archival imagery to explore themes of identity, race, history, and community. Blending bold color palettes, intricate patterns, and layered compositions, her paintings reimagine historical and contemporary life, often centering on intimate domestic and social scenes. Her practice reflects an ongoing engagement with storytelling, political narratives, and the complexities of diasporic identity.
During her residency, she plans to immerse herself in Lagos’ cultural and artistic landscape, using the time for research, reflection, and networking. By engaging with local artists and institutions, she hopes to gain insights through conversations, interactions, and archival materials. She is particularly interested in the digital preservation of Nigerian newspapers and broader questions of historical documentation, anticipating that the experience will organically inform her future work.
Family Portrait, 2019. Courtesy of Joy Labinjo and Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art
What is the current focus of your creative practice?
Right now, my creative practice is centered on exploring social and political narratives through figurative oil painting, with a concurrent focus on the female nude. My work engages with identity, memory, and historical storytelling, often drawing from personal, archival, and found imagery to construct layered visual narratives.
Visiting Great Grandma, 2018. Courtesy of Joy Labinjo and Tiwani Contemporary. Photographer: Deniz Guzel
What drew you to apply for this residency, and how do you think it will inform your wider practice?
How it will inform my wider practice—I'm not hoping to find a specific thing; however, my works are a result of conversations, interactions, films I've watched, and books I've read. I'm excited to see what happens. There's no way the experience won't affect my practice; I'm just not sure what this will look like at the moment.
Enjoyment, 2024. Courtesy of Joy Labinjo and Tiwani Contemporary. Photographer: Deniz Guzel
Can you give us an insight into how you hope to use the opportunity?
I'd like to visit artists and institutions in Lagos. I'm excited to see what people are doing. There's also a page I follow on Instagram that has been digitalising Nigerian newspapers. I find that exciting, and I'm intrigued to see if I can visit. I'm very interested in the ways in which history is recorded.
ABOUT JOY LABINJO
Joy Labinjo’s large-scale figurative paintings often depict intimate scenes of historical and contemporary life, both real and imagined and often based on figures appearing in personal and archival imagery that include family photographs, found images and historical material. She has explored themes including but not limited to identity, political voice, power, Blackness, race, history, community and family and their role in contemporary experience.
Her work presents fresh and arresting compositions of colour, pattern, and motifs—key signatures of Labinjo’s work. Fundamentally, at the heart of Labinjo’s practice is a bold interest in storytelling and, ultimately, people’s lives. Labinjo’s aesthetic comprises an eclectic visual vocabulary and mixed painterly techniques that echo her experience of multiple identities—growing up Black, British, and Nigerian in the 1990s and early 00s.
Joy's residency is generously supported by Tiwani Contemporary.