The London Art Fair 2023 edition of Photo50 will bring together the work of a group of multigenerational women photographers whose practice engages with their diasporic heritage, and through their lens explores domestic life and the home as not only a physical place but also a space of memory and generational exchange.

The title is taken from the 2019 book Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals by the American writer Saidiya Hartmann, who writes about the lives of Black women in the US through a lens of fiction, using photographs from the archive and taking a sensory approach to narrating such histories.

The majority of selected artists are based in the UK, but they have a range of diasporic heritages and have made work that reflects their particular histories and ideas around home.

2023 EXHIBITING ARTISTS

Heather Agyepong | Joy Gregory | Adaeze Ihebom | Marcia Michael | Bernice Mulenga | Sofia Yala | Marlene Smith | Rubee Samuel | Maxine Walker | Adama Jalloh

“We tried to find a way to allow the photographers space to consider their ideas and share them with us. Some of these voices have not been heard and we feel that they deserve a platform. The exhibition is an opportunity for them to experiment with their ideas without constraints. The beauty in these works is both visual but also emotional as they share intimate domestic or interior moments with the viewer.” – Pelumi Odubanjo and Katy Barron

Heather Agyepong, The Body Remembers, 2020. Courtesy of The Hyman Collection

MEET THE CURATORS

Pelumi Odubanjo is a curator, researcher, and writer based in London. Her interests in contemporary art are cross-disciplinary, although her understanding is filtered through the lens of Photography which informs both her work as a curator and researcher. Pelumi works with artists, archives, and cultural artefacts to create and explore dialogues across a global African diaspora to disentangle our understanding of archival practice. Pelumi has a BA from Newcastle University in Fine Art, and an MA from Goldsmith’s, University of London in Contemporary Art Theory. She is currently a PhD candidate in History of Art at the University of Glasgow.

Her writing on contemporary photography, art, and culture has appeared in Magnum Photos, New Contemporaries, Artillery Magazine, Photoworks, and Photo Fringe amongst others. Pelumi currently works as an Assistant Curator at the Serpentine Galleries, and has curated at festivals and institutions such as Photo Oxford, 2021, the Tate Exchange at Tate Modern, 2020, Brighton Photo Fringe, 2020, and the Black Cultural Archives, 2020.

Katy Barron is a photography curator, mentor and advisor based in London. She has worked within the field of photography for the past 20 years, focusing on contemporary and twentieth century artists. Katy has undertaken a myriad of roles within the field – from Senior Director at Michael Hoppen Gallery to Chair of the Board of Photofusion. She currently works for the Maud Sulter Estate in Glasgow and is helping other women artists with issues around their archives, estates and legacies. Katy has a BA from the Courtauld Institute of Art and an M. Litt in the History of Art from Oxford University. She has curated numerous photographic exhibitions in the UK and abroad, most recently at Four Corners in Bethnal Green, St John’s College, Oxford as a part of the Photo Oxford festival and at Photofusion, Brixton.

London Art Fair’s Photography Focus Day (Friday 20 January 2023) will feature a day of Talks and Tours dedicated to the examination and discussion of some of the most innovative and distinctive elements of contemporary photographic practice.

The London Art Fair Photo50 takes place from the 17th – 22nd January 2023.

Book and purchase your tickets here

Header Image: Heather Agyepong, Spotlight on Rest 2020. Courtesy of The Hyman Collection