Charmaine Chanakira:
The Black Experience

Recently, Buckingham & Lloyds has partnered with London-based painter, Charmaine Chanakira, to exhibit her collection titled The Black Experience. 

The artist’s identification as a BLACK/ ZIMBABWEAN/ MIGRANT/ WOMAN living in the UK is central to her practice; as the artist claims: ‘I’m not just one thing, I am all and none.’

The pieces previously exhibited at the Bomb Factory for her show titled ‘I Am All And None’, now hang in one of our Kensington Buildings.  The works address the social and political injustices that she has personally experienced. Chanakira’s work engages with the notions of decolonisation and social justice, challenging the world in which she lives…

Change comes to be the subject matter and the organising principle of her painting.  Bright colours jump from the surface of the canvas, submerging the drawing and doodles that can be seen faintly below the paint. With iconography reminiscent of the 1980’s New York Neo-expressionist movement, the works on paper are filled with signs and messages. At the juncture of art and activism, one imagines them like posters hastily glued to walls, bus stops and other parts of a city to be seen by all who pass, sometimes in protest, or sometimes as a celebration.