Concealed Cultures: Visualizing the Black Vernacular

This exhibition connects seven artists (Oluseye Ogunlesi, Karice Mitchell, Fegor Obuwoma, Clancy Ngolah, Odera Igbokwe, Michèle Bygodt, and Nura Ali) whose works in this exhibit are connected through a desire to make visible the specificities of language that emerge as a result of lived experiences in the diasporic world. The representation of Blackness is understood in this exhibition as a means of communication interpreted through storytelling and portraiture. These stories unfold and interweave with one another through film, photography, and printmaking amongst other media, deepening a consideration of how community is visualized with agency. Bringing together themes of community, language, racial violence, voyeurism, spirituality, Black agency, erasure, and cultural reconnection, Concealed Cultures is meant to be expansive.

About the Black Arts Centre

Located in the heart of Surrey, directly beneath Surrey Central Station, the Black Arts Centre exists to support and celebrate Black art and artists across a variety of disciplines at a local, national, and international scale, by hosting exhibitions, performances, events, workshops, and other diverse programming. The Black Arts Centre is a response to our community’s need for a Black-friendly art and gathering space that is culturally relevant and accessible. The Centre not only conceptualizes art in an everyday sense, but also aims to foster mutual, transformational relationships that connect our community to artistic and cultural Black experiences year-round.

Curators: Arshi Chadha, Olumoroti (Moroti) Soji-George, and Vanessa Fajemisin from the Black Arts Centre
Origin of Exhibition: Surrey Art Gallery