Ajamu X, BE, 2022
Artist, archive curator and radical sex activist, Ajamu X (aka Master Aaab) will be in conversation with artist Simeon Barclay.
Using words, sound and images, Ajamu and Barclay will explore the influence of their hometown of Huddersfield on their trajectories as artists.
ABOUT
Ajamu X (aka Master Aaab) is a fine artist, neurodivergent photographer, archive curator and radical sex activist. His practice incorporates portraits, nudes and studio-based constructed imagery which unapologetically celebrates black queer bodies, the erotic, difference, and pleasure as resistance. He is the co-founder of rukus! Federation/Black LGBTQ Archive (with Dr Topher Campbell) and is one of the leading specialists on black queer heritage, history and cultural memory in the UK. Most recently, he has co-founded Spit & Spider Press with Dr Sheena Calvert (.918 press). This is an alternative publishing venture focusing on the radical materiality of the book. Ajamu is currently a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art. His research investigates the materiality of the darkroom and the sensual material attributes/physicality of the photograph.
Simeon Barclay (b. 1975, in Huddersfield, UK) received his BA from Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds in 2010 and an MFA from Goldsmiths College, London in 2014. Barclay is a member of the Arts Council Acquisition Committee since 2021 and a member of the advisory committee for the Freelands Foundation since 2018, and in 2020 he was selected to be included in the British Art Show 9.
He has exhibited both nationally and internationally including at Southbank Centre, Tate Britain, South London Gallery, London; Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool; Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Workplace Foundation, Gateshead; Holden Gallery, Manchester; The Tetley, Leeds; Cubitt Gallery, London; The Bluecoat, Liverpool; Jerwood Space, London; Galerie Lisa Kandlhofer, Vienna; Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels; Arcadia Missa, New York and W139, Amsterdam. His work is in the Arts Council Collection, London; Zabludowicz Collection, London; Manchester Art Gallery and Whitworth Art Gallery collection, Manchester.
ACCESS
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