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Curator's Note

Everything here pulls toward the pale circle at the centre, and one thin white line cuts straight through it. That line, Aiyedogbon says, i…

Curator's Note

Emmanuel takes the thing a woman is taught to cover and paints it as weather: vitiligo shaped like clouds at first light. It is the gentles…

Curator's Note

A ring of white light, one eye flaring like a star, an ochre robe over a bare shoulder. Dayo paints Christ as a young African man with a fu…

Curator's Note

Her eyes are closed, and that changes everything. She is not surveying a court; she is somewhere inward, chin lifted, a queen with no need …

Curator's Note

A single balloon, four strings, and a lion who clearly disagrees. Anth Ezeokoye turns the Igbo proverb Onye kwe, chi ya ekwe into a deadpan…

Curator's Note

Watch the last word swell until it nearly fills the page. Loved is a prayer for ordinary days, when the noise gets in. Anth Ezeokoye letter…

Curator's Note

Two feline goddesses walk hand in hand: Mafdet, cheetah-headed, holding up a bleeding heart, and Bastet, grey and cat-headed, raising her s…

Curator's Note

The centrepiece of Toni Kuyinu's royal trio, and the only face that meets us head-on, yet his eyes are closed. Nothing is being claimed or …

Curator's Note

Toni Kuyinu's gold usually crowns kings and queens. Here it rings the closed eye of a girl holding a single white feather to her face. It i…

Curator's Note

Count the eyes: one closed, one open, one at the brow with a spiral for a pupil. Godwin removes the name from the face on purpose, so what …

Curator's Note

A fairy tale rewritten by someone it left out. Emmanuel's mermaid has an afro, a crown and an ocean that answers to her. For some children …