Artista

Enam Gbewonyo

For Gbewonyo, weaving is an intrinsic part of her identity; forming part of the Ewe tribe’s way of life and storytelling, its processes are heralded as meditative and healing and its origins cosmic, bedded in the myth that spiders taught the Ewes to weave. A tale she learnt in later years on artistic pilgrimage, it has generated her long-held obsession with the spider’s web. This obsession has unveiled itself in numerous works, including those presented in this exhibition.

The artist’s journey is an ever-spinning web of self-discovery, as seen in the current series of works Nude Me/Under the Skin. Nude Me investigates hosiery, particularly how this seemingly simple garment, a staple of Western women’s wardrobes, has for the Black woman been another form of marginalisation and ostracisation. It is these personal experiences of craft’s healing power that fuels her advocacy. With her work, Gbewonyo seeks to deliver our collective consciousness to a positive place of awareness by creating live spaces of healing.

The Empire has new clothes, a history rewritten in the black II

2021, Used tights, bamboo and cotton yarn, recycled PET thread, metallic thread and eco-friendly water based acrylic paint on used empty canvas frame. Courtesy of the artist

A cosmos within – the infinite black, SOURCE

2021, Burnout used tights, recycled PET thread and eco-friendly water based acrylic paint on used empty canvas frame. Courtesy of the artist

Re-asserting the black feminine

2021, Used tights, cotton thread and metallic thread on used empty canvas frame. Courtesy of the artist

Teetering on the edge of visibility, the invisible disguised as visible IV

2019, Vintage family and erotica photographs on tea-stained recycled paper, used tights and cotton thread on tea-stained canvas. Courtesy of the artist

The Ascension of the Nude

2021, Used burnout tights, cotton thread on handmade tulip wood pyramid frame. Courtesy of the artist

Masked in the sheer audacity of Chicago’s perceptions of blackness and womanhood, BLACK

2018, Used nylon tights and cotton thread. Courtesy of the artist

Masked in the sheer audacity of Chicago's perceptions of blackness and womanhood, NUDE

2018, Nylon tights and cotton thread. Courtesy of the artist

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Enam Gbewonyo (London, UK, 1980). She lives and works in London. She has exhibited with galleries and institutions such as: Tafeta Gallery, Bonhams, Gallery 46 Whitechapel, New Ashgate Gallery. She has performed at Christie’s, Hogan Lovells LLP, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, and for Arts Territory’s Palace of Ritual which was part of the collateral programme of the 58th edition of the Venice Biennale, and more recently a livestream performance to activate the exhibition of fellow artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Fly in League with the Night at Tate Britain.