African artists often explore domestic spaces as a way to negotiate power dynamics, intimacy, and identity. The domestic space is known as the distinct and private space of the home. The centrality of the artist’s home is sometimes redefined in their works. In their investigations of domestic spaces, artists like Carrie Mae Weems and Horace Pippins have examined the dynamics and politics of these spaces in their works. There are artists of African descent that are challenging the conventional belief that domestic spaces are exclusive to women. These artists are criticising the framing of domestic spaces as private property and privilege while preserving memories captured in intimate and familial scenes.
Damilola Onosowobo
Born in 1993, Damilola Onosowobo is a Nigerian artist. Her paintings focus on revealing the questions bordering on how people perceive reality and their own lived experiences. To capture the intimacy of leafing through an old analog photo album, Onosowobo’s work prioritizes the emotional content of memories rather than a representational depiction of an event. Her vivid paintings invite us to take a peep into the imagined lives of others – foreign and startlingly familiar. As an avid observer of reality, Onosowobo captures intimate moments of people experiencing daily life in different spaces.
Image courtesy of Affinity Art Gallery
You can follow the artist and her work here.
Cornelius Annor
Ghanaian artist Cornelius Annor (b. 1990) creates works depicting familial scenes in intimate and domestic settings. The artist shows different parts of Ghanaian life in gathering, rest, and leisure phases. His work is a visual commentary on memory and archives as the settings he paints emerge from memories of his childhood and family photos. He does this to illustrate how special and everyday moments endure and shape the present. Annor’s generous use of traditional Ghanaian textiles lavishly in his paintings portrays the domesticity and texturedness of family and home. These fabrics, often gotten from the women in his family such as his wife, mother, or aunts, gives the works even more intimacy.
Image courtesy of Artsy
You can follow the artist and his work here.
Katlego Tlabela
Katlego Tlabela, born in 1993, is a multidisciplinary artist from South Africa. He is well-known for his interior paintings, which feature Black people relaxing in their luxurious domestic spaces. His paintings, created with collage, acrylic, and ink, frequently depict expansive rooms with high-end furniture and walls. He explores social and political issues in post-apartheid South Africa alongside artworks from other artists to honour them.
Image courtesy of Artsy
Katlego Tlabela, Black Owned Property IV (After Noah Davis’ Single Mother with Father out of the Picture), 2020, Acrylic, ink, and collage on canvas, 77 × 77 cm
Image courtesy of Artsy
You can follow the artist and his work here.
