RM9 5AN

RM9 5AN is a new commission and the first solo exhibition in a public art organisation by London-based artist Okiki Akinfe. Comprising a new series of large-scale oil paintings and lightboxes, Akinfe’s exhibition continues her ongoing engagement with identity, memory, class and place.

Drawing from the historical canon of painting and the visual language of gaming, animation and film photography, Akinfe’s work explores the ‘Black Lens’, a conceptual framework she developed to subvert stereotypical representations by demonstrating their absurdity. Often read as an invitation to unpack a riddle or a fable, in relation to a memory or a place, Akinfe’s paintings reference both satire and dissonance. In her previous works, Akinfe has reflected on childhood memories through the iconography of video games and disembodied monster legs, while other works have explored an ongoing interest in abstraction and figuration. 

For her new commission at Peer, Akinfe builds on her work’s interest in depictions of everyday life to explore larger questions concerning the construction of identity and its relationship to place. Acting as a love letter to her local high-street in Dagenham, this new body of work is a portrait of a place – specifically, the postcode district of RM9 5AN in Essex, just on the edge of London.

Source: Peer Gallery Website