Reclaimed Narratives: Black History Month at Liberty
Meet the artists showcasing their work at Liberty’s exclusive Black History Month exhibition
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Reclaimed Narratives: Black History Month at Liberty
Meet the artists showcasing their work at Liberty’s exclusive Black History Month exhibition
By: Team LibertyFeyi Badejo with one of his artworks - Saint (2021)
This Black History Month, discover the work of four Black artists at Liberty as we celebrate this year’s theme: “Reclaiming Narratives”.
Join us on the First Floor in store, for an exhibition showcasing the work of four artists: Feyi Badejo, Sharon Walters, Xavier Laurent Leopold and textile designer Althea McNish.
Each artist in our curation explores the intersection of cultural identity and creativity, celebrating the richness of Black heritage. Through their unique works, each expresses their individuality while simultaneously spotlighting the importance of community. Redefining traditional boundaries through powerful storytelling to convey the Black experience.
Find our more and explore their work in person throughout October at Liberty, and discover a taste of the exhibition here….
Meet the Artists
SHARON WALTERS
Sharon Walters
Sharon Walters
Longing and Belonging I, 2024
© Sharon Walters / Courtesy HackelBury Fine Art
Sharon Walters (b. 1975) is a London-based artist and project curator. Her multidisciplinary series, Seeing Ourselves, explores identity, beauty standards, and race through intricate paper cut-outs, hand-assembled collages, podcasts, talks, and events. In her layered collages, Walters creates dimensional and complex depictions of Black women. Floated in glass, her paper-cuts cast shadows of themselves, alluding to a past within. Her practice confronts exclusionary and othering narratives perpetuated against Black communities, emphasising their right to 'take up space'.
With solo exhibitions at HackelBury, London (2024), and the Midlands Arts Center, Birmingham (2022), Walters received the Reach Art Prize in 2019 and the Mosaic Art Award at Hauser and Wirth in 2023 for Seeing Ourselves. Walters was awarded the Caird Fellowship Award by Royal Museums Greenwich, which will begin in February 2025 and culminate in an exhibition at the museum in 2026. Walters' works have been acquired by public collections, including the National Portrait Gallery and Soho House.
XAVIER LAURENT LEOPOLD
Xavier Laurent Leopold is a London-based, Sierra Leone-born multi-disciplinary artist who explores abstract portraiture and cubism, inspired by his personal experiences and worldview. His work touches on themes like time, introspection, faith, and legacy, featuring bold characters that engage the viewer. He is currently studying at the Royal College of Art, having been awarded the Sir Frank Bowling scholarship.
In "Moving Mountains," Xavier explores faith and duality, inspired by Matthew 17:20, which speaks to the power of faith to create change. This aligns with Liberty London’s values of bold ideas and creativity’s transformative power. Both Xavier’s painting and Liberty London celebrate the strength of duality—balancing tradition and innovation, heritage and modernity.
Xavier Laurent Leopold by Bashiru Shardow
FEYI BADEJO
Feyi Badejo with his artwork - Saint (2021)
Feyi Badejo is a London-based artist known for his innovative use of colour and graphic design. His collaboration with New Balance and Arsenal footballer Bukayo Saka, where he designed custom boots, gained him significant attention. He also created "Art Not Fashion," a brand that merges visual art with wearable fashion, focusing on cultural identity and community.
Badejo’s piece explores beauty, faith, and design, inspired by the colours and beauty of stained-glass windows in churches. He believes that, like Liberty, art offers freedom and joy, allowing people to find meaning. His work aims to create a space for peaceful, joyful escape, where people can feel inspired.
ALTHEA MCNISH
Althea McNish
Pioneering Black artist and textile designer Althea McNish revolutionised post-war British design with her bold, botanical creations. One of the first Black designers to gain international recognition, McNish’s unique style had a transformative influence on Liberty’s print aesthetic, as well as the design world at large.
From the start, Althea McNish prints sparked a powerful aesthetic change, appealing to young Brits who were eager to escape the greyness and gloom of the postwar era. Her joyful, impasto-like designs appeared on dress fabrics for French fashion houses such as Dior and in publications like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. Her work also appeared as murals of ocean-liners and the wall hangings of railway offices.
Find out more about her work here: Read More: A Spotlight On Althea McNish
The Reclaimed Narratives exhibition will run in Liberty throughout October 2024: find it on the First Floor, with an additional curation of Althea McNish's work showcased on the Third Floor.
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