Africanus Okokon’s "Elegant Cuts" employs vibrant blues, reds, and greens in a collage format, featuring two male portraits framed side by side. The figures are placed against textured backgrounds, with razors accentuating each image, implying transformation or identity shaping. The piece reflects a bold, pop-art inspired style, incorporating layered elements to create depth. Through this work, Okokon explores themes of cultural identity and personal transformation, echoing the diasporic experiences of migration and memory, while subtly critiquing traditional notions of masculinity and appearance within the African diaspora. ...
Drawing from a rich cultural heritage and diverse artistic disciplines, Africanus Okokon’s practice spans moving image, performance, painting, assemblage, collage, sound, and installation. Rooted in his experience as the son of Nigerian and Ghanaian immigrants, Okokon’s work delves deeply into themes of memory, identity, and cultural transformation, exploring how personal and collective histories are created, transmitted, and reimagined. His work frequently investigates the dialectic between forgetting and remembering, emphasizing the fluidity and complexity of cultural narratives shaped by migration, displacement, and diasporic experience. Okokon often employs layered imagery and materials, creating immersive environments that challenge traditional modes of representation and invite viewers into active processes of interpretation and reflection. By blending historical research with contemporary artistic methods, Okokon’s practice blurs the lines between documentary and fiction, past and present, individual and collective memory. His work critically examines how stories are mediated across time and media, urging audiences to reconsider assumptions about cultural identity and the ways histories are preserved, contested, and transformed. This interdisciplinary approach positions Okokon as a vital voice in contemporary conversations about heritage, memory, and belonging. ...
Harlesden High Street was founded with the mission of facilitating access between experimental/outsider artists and the traditional gallery system. Working across several spaces in London, the gallery exhibits contemporary art by both local and international artists with a focus on exhibiting work by people of colour. In addition to its gallery programme, Harlesden High Street also hosts a cultural outreach programme with an aim to engage audiences in un-gentrified neighborhoods, through workshops, talks and artist initiatives. In 2023, the gallery also co-founded Minor Attractions, an inclusive micro-fair that gives access to both London and international galleries during Frieze week. ...
