Installation view of Christina Kimeze: Between Wood and Wheel, 2025 at South London Gallery. Photo: Andy Stagg
Discover the radiant, textured paintings of Christina Kimeze at the South London Gallery, at her first solo exhibition in the UK.
Between Wood and Wheel brings together a new series of paintings and works on paper. Originally inspired by the resurgence of roller skating in Black communities, the series explores ideas of freedom, flight and escape, particularly from a female perspective.
Kimeze sets her figures against dreamlike landscapes and mysterious interiors. She depicts ungraspable, in-between spaces and, in her own words, ‘the idea of existing between two emotional spaces and the feelings of “otherness” that can arise from this space’. Her work invites us to reflect on the shifting nature of our relationship to our inner lives and how thoughts, feelings and memories might be visualised.
The exhibition also includes a newly commissioned tapestry, made in collaboration with Dovecot Studios, based on Kimeze’s painting Blue Doorway (2024).
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The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue. Featuring an essay by curator and writer Ekow Eshun, an essay by Eleanor Nairne, The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art and Head of Department at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a conversation with the artist and Alayo Akinkugbe, writer, art historian and founder of @ABlackHistoryOfArt.
ABOUT CHRISTINA KIMEZE
Christina Kimeze lives and works in London. Kimeze studied at The Royal Drawing School postgraduate programme 2021-2022 where she was awarded the Sir Denis Mahon award; and received her undergraduate degree at the University of Oxford in Biological Sciences.
Recent exhibitions include: Women & Freud: patients, pioneers, artists, Freud Museum, London (2024); Drawing Biennial 2024, Drawing Room (2024); Soulscapes, Dulwich Picture Gallery (2024); Present Tense, Hauser and Wirth, Bruton (2024); Something other than the world might know, White Cube, Paris (2023); Interior, Michael Werner Gallery, London (2023); and The Great Women Artists IV, Residency at Palazzo Monti, Brescia, Italy (2022).
VISITOR AND ACCESS NOTES
- The quietest time to visit is generally on Wednesdays between 6 and 9 p.m. Please note that we cannot guarantee how busy or quiet the exhibition or building will be at any given time.
- Seating is available in the Main Gallery, Fire Station Gallery 1, Fire Station Gallery 2. Additional seating is available upon request.
- Large print guides, magnifying glasses, ear defenders and a wheelchair are available.
- In the Fire Station, Gallery 2, visitors are invited use the art materials provided. This is the only gallery in the exhibition where art-making materials are allowed.
- Children are welcome but should be supervised during their visit due to the delicate nature of the artworks.
- Please respect the privacy of other visitors if taking photographs.
Lead exhibition donor: The Bukhman Foundation
Catalogue donor: Simon Nixon
Exhibition donors: The Foundation Foundation and Hauser & Wirth
