AN INTERVENTION by Nahem Shoa

Nahem Shoa’s paintings of portraits of black people have been exhibited widely, often within the context of asking uncomfortable questions around the lack of black representation in art, and in historic museum collections. Shoa’s work not only deals with themes of racism, he also tackles objectification of women in art.

The Whitaker’s own collection has little representation of black or mixed-race people. We are delighted that Nahem has loaned us one of his artworks to display during our series of portrait exhibitions, and have paired it alongside one of our own portraits from our collection. The choice of paintings, their position and relationship with each other, will offer an interesting narrative and add to the conversation as we reflect on our collection, who we represent in our artworks, and how we represent them.