She also points to a painting by Wangari Mathenge, a self-portrait of the Chicago-based Kenyan artist, scantily clad and lounging on a sofa, her gaze a challenge to the viewer. “It’s full of assertion,” says Kouoh. “And I love it. It’s extremely empowering.” The exhibition is sponsored by Gucci, which is helping to take the discussion to a broader audience via its social channels, bringing these paintings about representation and identity back into the online spaces that often influence them.
Through the sensual and alluring medium of paint, all these artists are delivering complex, individual narratives in a way that somehow also feels universal. “The figures in my paintings are not me,” says Mckinney. “But I hope that they’re you.” The long historical canon of representation of women is being well and truly shaken-up.
