British-Nigerian artist Joy Labinjo has carved a path as a leading contemporary painter with her distinctive portraiture; fusing stylistic notes of Cubism with the 1980s British Black Art movement, Labinjo creates something entirely her own and of the now. Often based on photographs — family, found or archival — Labinjo’s paintings blur collective and personal moments and memories to explore British Blackness, and address the way the portraiture genre has played a role in the politics of power and identity.

Labinjo — an The Wick has featured previously as part of our spotlight series — continues to impress with her latest project, We Are Briefly Gorgeous, her largest institutional undertaking to date, to mark the Southwark Park Galleries 40th anniversary programme. Observing scenes on visits to Southwark Park and around Bermondsey, Labinjo based her new paintings on what she saw and what it evoked in her. They are scenes celebrating the diversity and unity of a community, the easy feeling of being at leisure in the city in the summer.

Labinjo’s work has recently featured at Brixton Underground Station, the Fitzwilliam Museum, and Chapter Arts Centre, among others, and is included in a group exhibition at Tiwani Contemporary In the Blood, until September.