Roots in the Sky is the first institutional curatorial project by British-Nigerian artist Tunji Adeniyi-Jones. This pivotal exhibition brings together new and recent works by ten contemporary artists whose practices span the United States, Europe, and West Africa.
Taking Adeniyi-Jones’s own practice as a point of departure - rich with West African heritage, fable, and ceremonial symbolism - the exhibition explores the cultural pluralism and layered identities that define the Black diaspora. Painting, sculpture, and drawing are employed in equal measure, with figuration and abstraction operating as shared visual languages to explore themes of mythology, community, lineage, and transformation.
About Tunji Adeniyi-Jones:
Tunji Adeniyi-Jones’s paintings emerge from a perspective of what the artist describes as ‘cultural addition, combination and collaboration’. Born and educated in the UK and now living and working in the USA, his practice is inspired by the ancient history of West Africa and its attendant mythology, and by his Yoruba heritage.
Tunji Adeniyi-Jones was born in London in 1992 and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. In 2014 he received his Bachelor's in fine arts from The Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University, UK and in 2017 he was awarded an MFA in painting and printmaking from Yale School of Art, Connecticut, USA.
Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Deep Dive’, White Cube Hong Kong (2023); ‘Spotlight’, FLAG Art Foundation, New York (2023); ‘Tranquil Dive’, Morán Morán, Mexico City (2023); ‘Emergent Properties’, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York (2022); ‘Voix Intérieures’, White Cube, Paris (2022); ‘Astral Reflections’, Charleston, East Sussex, UK (2021); ‘That Which Binds Us’, White Cube, Bermondsey, London (2021), ‘Melodic Virtues’, Morán Morán, Los Angeles (2021); 39 Great Jones Street, New York (2020); ‘Patterns and Rituals’, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York (2020); ‘Dreams Through Seasons: New Paintings’, The Cabin, Los Angeles (2018); and ‘Flash of the Spirit’, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York (2017).
About Aurella Yussuf:
Aurella Yussuf is a writer and art historian. Her research focuses on the relationship between art institutions, art practice and Black artists. She is interested in how Black artists form community and create spaces outside of art institutions, and how those spaces can be generative for working and for critical thinking.
Credit: Roots in the Sky is curated by Tunji Adeniyi-Jones and developed with Clarissa Corfe, Creative Producer: Visual Art, HOME.
