BlackFest 2022 - Visual Arts Launch at Gallery 455

The exhibition will compile the work of 4 visual artists, 2 local 2 national

Throughout the month there will be a series of workshops facilitated by the artist

Inside the gallery there will be prints and cards of the artists work available

Come and see the works of amazing artists and meet them at this Launch Event

Our Visual Artists this year are:

Leroy Cooper

Liverpool Artist Activist, Documentary Photographer,

Capstone Media Project Film Maker, Creative Writer,

Social Commentator and Arts Business Entrepreneur.

Starting with Further Impressions and Spoken Word from the 1981 Toxteth riots in Liverpool that we were talking about on the last IceCream broadcast 2 weeks ago with Louis Julienne and Clifford Higgins .Followed by a slice of an Eek a Mouse live mixthen Showcasing a current interview with Leroy Cooper , Liverpool Artist Activist, Documentary Photographer, Capstone Media Project Film Maker, Creative Writer, Social Commentator and Arts Business Entrepreneur.

link

https://tilos.hu/episode/icecream/2022/06/25?fbclid=IwAR19iVEIAYlaZ41XPwZu8z5ULYIFAB7LbkxC6yaHXguouKL775Lj4Mkaa1o

Layla Gibiliru

The artist behind the work “Invisible injustice”. As an artist, Layla likes to look at people in society who may be ignored or not thought about and has done so in previous works such as “The absence of the author” and “people”. She has also explored the beauty of life within the womb in an exploration of “women” and “placenta of Life.

As well as working as a freelance Artist, Layla has volunteered as a Beaver leader in a local scout group for the past 4 years and is the co-ordinator of Liverpool Outdoor Art Club. She is also the author and illustrator of children’s book, Tatty Ava. A story that makes brushing hair exciting and portrays the protagonist as a girl with beautiful curly hair. Layla is currently working on a new selection of children’s books with other authors, illustrators and artists, under the publishing company, Chamelifun, a publishing company that celebrates education fitting with each individual child, through stories.

Layla Gibiliru @laylagibiliru

www.laylagibiliru.com

Jioni Warner

Jioni Warner most known work is a trilogy of portraits that gained the judges choice award at the 2021 'Ones to Watch' Exhibition. The portraits discuss the exploitation of black women in society and its links to historical events, they encourage conversations on the triple marginalisation of race, gender and class black women face daily. Jioni was born in Leeds and graduated from Staffordshire University in 2021 and has recently completed her MA in fine art at Liverpool John Moore’s University. By using a range of mediums such as portraiture, collage, and photography Warner discusses the black British experience and identity by looking at her position as a contemporary black British woman.

In Warner's portraits, she uses photo transferred images as a contextual background, gathering images from social media, archive's, articles, and internet sources. The viewer is left to reflect on the relationship between the profusion of images and the figure in the portrait. In her work, Warner uses herself as the subject and creates characters to evoke the theme of the painting to form the narrative and experience. The subject will often have a strong outward gaze to command authority and take up space, Warner is interested in replacing the gaze which has been traditionally white in art with a black woman opening a discussion on the representation and stereotypes placed on the black body.

Warner is going through a self-fuelled enquiry and examining her ancestry through embodying heritage in a performative way and through portraiture, in doing so showcasing the depth of history that goes into black British which questions the vague label placed on black people in Britain and the vocabulary used to describe us. The layering in her work also aids in referencing the multi-layers of experiences and culture that is being black British and Caribbean.

Gold Akanbi

Akanbi is a neurodiverse British-Nigerian multidisciplinary artist. She works from a foundation of intersectionality. Her work mainly focuses on Afro-futurism,Traditional African spirituality, and The Black Body and the physical land it is indigenous to. Her practice also considers neurodiversity and the neurological perception of reality, as well as sensory stimulation and sensory overload.

Having previously graduated with a 1st class from Liverpool John Moores University and recently completing an MFA at Oxford University: Ruskin School of Art, for which they were awarded a scholarship by The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust for outstanding craftsmanship and its continuous development, Akanbi hopes to pursue a PhD that will further their research into concepts of identity, indigenous healing and alternative ways of living and survival.

Host or Publisher BlackFest