joseph scissorhands: Soulscapes

Njideka Akunyili Crosby - Cassava Garden (detail)

All roads led south to Dulwich Picture Gallery to catch yet another exhibition in the capital proudly focusing on the work of certain black artists. Soulscapes at Dulwich Picture Gallery looks at how a selection of said artists explore the genre of landscape in art, and the place of the black figure within this context of the landscape. It is a concept that was similarly explored last year by curator Ekow Eshun in Like Paradise at Claridge's Art Space (here), and does actually feature some of the very same artists from that exhibition, but also features many other artists whose work I was unaware of, but took an instantaneous liking to. The black figure is perhaps most readily associated with the popular imagination in the built urban environments in most minds. The artists here however go some way to dispelling these clichés, exploring a variety of themes to rebut these preconceived perceptions. There is Isaac Julien's stunning photograph of a black woman seemingly out of place in a dramatic icy Icelandic landscape which asks questions of belonging, placement and roots. Other artists place the black figure on a seashore partaking in what appears to be the religious ritual of baptism, or within lush foliage sparking memories harking back to their ancestral roots in say the landscapes of Africa or the Caribbean, a time before enforced migration and the harrowing journey of the Middle Passage. There are surreal, mystical dreamscapes depicted here inspired by African mythologies in paintings such as Ant Hill by Michael Armitage, and Alberta Whittle's circular pieces which conjure up sacred spaces and identity through both saturated and pastel colours. There is too evidence of the continued passage of man in time through the landscape, tracing temporary,beautiful spiralling patterns in the sand as walking meditations in a series of photographs captured by EVEWRIGHT. Stand out pieces for me personally include the painted black nudes amongst the dense foliage of artist Che Lovelace. The compostions and paint are handled beautifully in a manner which to me recalls the works of Matisse, Cezanne and Gauguin. The figurative landscapes of Christina Kimeze are similarly reminiscent of Monet and Van Gogh. The scale and abstraction of Michaela Yearwood-Dan's painting in the final room of the exhibition with added ceramic petals deserves a mention, as does the densely textured embroidered artwork by Kimathi Mafafo. There really is so much to love and take away from this exhibition, which invites comparison to The Time Is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, now closed but which for a time also ran concurrently with Soulscapes in central London at the National Portrait Gallery (here), an exhibition that focused on portraiture and the black figure (again expertly curated by Ekow Eshun). Again there is a crossover, with a couple of artists work gracing both exhibitions. This exhibition Soulscapes is excellently curated by Lisa Anderson managing director of the Brixton based Black Cultural Archive. On the day I visited there appeared to be little footfall so I was grateful to have had the exhibition largely to myself which was perfect as I had the luxury of space in which to really take my time in strolling through the gallery rooms to savour and appreciate the artworks. Soulscapes deserves to be appreciated by a much larger audience and hopefully this will be the case over the holiday periods in the months of April, May and the rest of its run.