ABOUT


Looking around my grandmother’s living room for the final time compelled me to root my art practice as a love letter to my working class Black British Caribbean heritage. I remember the precious figurines in her display cabinet, a kinetic Lord’s Supper painting and the feeling of running my hand along the textured wallpaper as I left her home.

Playing with the themes of nostalgia, identity, and belonging, I embrace the multiplicity of time and place in both English inner cities and the lush hills and rivers of Jamaica. My work is layered with my ancestral legacy and memories alongside the realities of the present day, as a second-generation immigrant. I use paint and collage to create figurative works that create intimate moments and encounters. The people within them are drawn from a pool of loved ones, myself and my community, alongside folklore characters, traditional mass carnival and songs handed down through generations.

From my studio in South London, I create works anchored in a materiality that emphasises texture, holding space for joy, reflection and pride in my identity. I combine gestural paint strokes, smooth chrome ink and text extracted from conversations and lyrics with surfaces of vintage objects and materials typically found in the iconic interiors of the Windrush Generation. Their homes offered a space of safety, expression and a connection with ‘back home’. Introducing the tactile patterns and textures of vintage mid-century wallpapers, plastic carpet protectors and decorative trinkets allows me to make sense of my life story, while giving the viewer an opportunity to connect with their own memories.

My background as a Fashion Stylist with a BA in Fashion design, not only explains the importance of the figure in my work but the significance of style, colour and pattern in cementing my pieces in time and culture. This allows me to shift the focus from the clothing to the sitter, flattening the garments with blocks of colour or collaged wallpaper.

Combining these facets has allowed me to create a body of works on wallpaper, wallpapered canvas and vintage objects, in a variety of scales, from a palm-sized bamboo coaster to a 2 meter high wallpaper scroll. My practice that bridges past and present, opening a dialogue about displacement, resilience, and the evolving concept of home.


 

EXHIBITIONS:

  • 'Black Are the Roses in My Garden' Lemon Seed Project, March 2025
  • '100 Black Women Who Have Made a Mark' Serendipity Institute at Leicester Gallery October 2024
  • 'Lore' at Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds October 2024
  • 'Rogue 3' Rogue Galleries, Manchester October 2024
  • 'Riot Soup' Other Art Fair at Truman Brewery, London October 2024
  • 'A Woman's Work' Yellow Dot at Genisis Gallery, 2024
  • 'Together We Thrive' Sotheby's Institute x Cultural Leaders at Gallery OCA, Cromwell Place 2024
  • 'Gather Around the Story Tree' Plurality Now at 198 Gallery 2023
  • 'Proverbs of the Windrush Child' Black Cultural Archives 2023
  • 'Sounds & Stories of the Windrush' Peckham Levels 2023
  • 'Where Are You From From?'  University of Canterbury 2023
  • 'Black & Bold' M&C Saatchi x Harrods 2022
  • 'ING Discerning Eye'  Mall Galleries 2022
  • 'Some of Us Are Brave' Casild Art 2022
  • 'The Marks We Make' The Curator's Salon 2021
  • 'Presentations: A Celebration of Black Art' Hammersmith BID 2021

MEDIA:

PRIZES & SHORTLISTS:

 

  • John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition Shortlist 2023
  • Art United Painting Prize 1st place winner -  2022
  • ING Discerning Eye Shortlist 2022
  • Royal Academy Summer Exhibition Shortlist 2022
  • Wavertree Art Prize Shortlist 2022

RESIDENCIES:

  • NG Creative Art Residency & Gallery, Annual Prize Winner, France 2025

COLLABORATIONS:

  • Black British Art x Wilkie Farr & Gallagher Private Exhibition 2023
  • Road Chef Black History Month 2022
  • Casild Art x Harbottle & Lewis Private Exhibition 2022