“Incompletion and pencil lines are a very important part of my practice – because the stories of the obscured black faces I paint aren’t finished” – Kwabena Lartey

Historically, the world continues to experience social injustice and police brutality, affecting many of our black communities globally. Still, through our modern-day technology, we have shared these injustices through many social media outlets. Within the last year, there have been numerous call-outs, protests, and awareness, yet there is a lingering emptiness of the obscured black bodies.

Kwabena Lartey’s work tackles the anonymity of these black bodies focusing on the face. He creates a space for you to develop a need to know more about who these individuals are and the lives that they have lived with the use of expression. Even at the point of the pain they had experienced it. The direct eye contact throughout the exhibition invites you to see yourself as the individuals to step in, look, learn and when you leave their presence is still within you.

His use of biomorphic shapes rendered in acrylic and pencil on canvas, creates a societal and mental prison that has been created in these lives. The emotional presence makes you question how we handle our traumas during these aftermaths and see ourselves in this mental state.

This exhibition held at the Noldor Residency, The Unknowns will continue the legacies of the lives that were lost and unravel these emotional and psychological issues that are in our everyday society.