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Artist Dawn Okoro celebrates spontaneity in electrifying exhibition
By Tempus | 1 March 2022
With Mad Explosive Spontaneity, Okoro portrays black artists, musicians and actors in her typically vibrant style
Texas-born artist Dawn Okoro has brought her work to London’s Maddox Gallery this February and March, as part of an astonishing exhibition that showcases the Nigerian-American's vibrant, explosively colourful work.
The showcase, dubbed Mad Explosive Spontaneity, is inspired by hip-hop, punk and fashion photography, and consists of 12 conceptual portraits. Portraying black artists, musicians and actors, Okoro’s dynamic work captures movement and emotion through pattern and texture, using materials such as gold leaf.
Maddox gallery suggests that the exhibition will "explore the idea of personal style as rebellion" by capturing black artiststic figures, "all of whom present themselves truthfully and in resistance to societal expectations".
“My work is a dance between me and the person I am painting,” says Okoro. “I consider my paintings conceptual portraits because I incorporate elements of reality as well as embellishment. In the paintings you see faces of real people, but the patterns and colours on the clothing are often changed to reflect the energy that I see in them and want to express.”
Maddox Gallery, 9 Maddox Street, London. Opened 24 February 2022