Our Artist Community — AKH | Art Kinship Highlighted

OUR ARTIST COMMUNITY

Ashley Henry’s critically acclaimed album, Beautiful Vinyl Hunter, was released in 2020. It was Jazz Japan’s Album of the Year, nominated as a BBC 6 Music’s Album of the Year, becoming only the second jazz album ever to do so. He was named France Jazz Magazine’s New Jazz Artist of the Year for 2020, and toured globally with Christine and the Queens, whilst supporting Loyle Carner’s second album tour.

Ashley Henry’s take on sound reflects his London upbringing and his Caribbean roots. His genre-bending sound and collaborative practice draws from classical training and being a diligent student of the Black radical tradition, its futurism and history, pulse, restlessness, and poise. His music is as informed by the work of James Baldwin, and Angela Davis, as it is by Ahmed Jamal, George Benson, Geri Allen and Aretha Franklin.

His deep sonic compositions have launched some of the best contemporary jazz vocalists in the UK. Whilst as a sonic artist his work allowed him to be the first musician commissioned by the Royal Observatory; Curate & establish The Freestyle Fellowship inviting Shabaka Hutchins; Blue Lab Beats and Binker Golding to support the UK’s Mental Health Foundation & Musicians during Covid. Whilst his Ronnie Scott’s Live Stream performance was the most streamed live jazz performance across Europe for 2020. Operating as an Ambassador for the Abram Wilson Foundation, in 2023 Henry established his own label Royal Raw Music via Believe International with the aim of continually pursuing and pushing the boundaries of artistic expression and collaboration.

Liam Lewin is a multi-disciplinary creative specialising in Moving Image and Graphic Design. Lewin aims to document Black British culture and experience through the Black British lens. His practice interweaves spoken work and poetry into his unique approach to storytelling to explore beyond the borders often limited by the short film and documentary format.

Graduating from London College of Communication, University of the Arts London with a BA in Graphic & Media Design and a MA in Film. Lewin has since continued to actively interrogate Black British identity through poetry, interviews and musical performances in the Short Film “Black British? Visual Poem I” and the accompanying poetry book “Black British?”. Lewin has also worked across a multitude of major label music campaigns for artists including DJ Khaled, Fivio Foreign, Jae5 and Dave. Most recently, Lewin has worked across the digital campaign for a UK Number 1 and Mercury Prize Shortlisted Album “J Hus - Beautiful and Brutal Yard”.

The Royal College of Art Association of Black Students, alumni & friends was co-founded as a Grassroots Community group in June 2020 by Roxanne Simone and Emily Moore. Forging a new model, Roxanne Simone and Emily Moore began the conversation to create an association that would remain central to the black student and alumni experience in and outside the RCA for years to come.

Ken Nwadiogbu (b. 1994, lagos, nigeria) is a Multidisciplinary Artist. A trained civil engineer, he soon pivoted to fine art, first embracing hyperrealism and charcoal drawing before expanding his creative horizon to more conceptual works and a wider array of techniques.

On Nwadiogbu’s large canvases, stories superimpose themselves in multiple layers. Mixing together hyperrealism with contemporary elements, he explores grave matters in his colorful conceptual work, inviting us to address altogether black representation and identity, displacement, and socio-political control. Defending an art that can be at once smart and fun, he creates ingenious, politically charged visual illusions that deploy a singular outlook, daring the audience to question their own, for “value lies in the perspective”.

Nwadiogbu is credited for introducing the “contemporealism” movement. He was awarded the prestigious the future awards africa in recognition of his contributions to the Nigerian arts community. His works have been exhibited in the Royal Academy of Art (summer exhibition, london, 2023), Thinkspace (‘ubuntu’, la, 2021), Bomb Factory Art Foundation (‘Journey Mercies’, London, 2021), and Retro Africa (‘a different perspective’, Abuja, 2022). They have also been showcased at scope miami, 1-54 london, prizm art fair, and Art x Lagos on several occasions. He has collaborated with many esteemed brands including Macmillan Publishers, Martell, and Oppo. A core focus for him is to inspire and encourage young creatives. He does this through public speaking and mentorship, as well as through his creative collaborations.

Nwadiogbu enjoys expanding his perspective and ours, rarely ever leaving anything to chance, but rather proceeding from a place of joy, and intentional care. He is constantly revitalizing his practice by challenging modes of black representation.

Emily Moore is a visual artist based in London, completing her MA in painting at the Royal College of Art in 2020. Moore has defined her own term ‘wildness’ in contemporary painting, which she says speaks both to her approach within her practice and also suggests the state of contemporary painting through the lens of art history and its current context within the immediate conversations surrounding painting. She was awarded the Valerie Beston award in 2020 and will have her debut London solo show at Ordovas Gallery in 2021. Recent selected group exhibitions in London in 2021 and 2020 include Social Fabric at Fold Gallery, an infinity of traces (curated by Ekow Eshun) at Lisson Gallery, Tomorrow: London at White Cube, Grads Now at Saatchi Gallery, Without a Painter at Fitzrovia Gallery, Begin Again at Guts Gallery, Thought Threads at San Mei Gallery, and Snapshot at Hockney Gallery.

Emily Moore is a Visual Artist based in London, completing her Ma in Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2020. Moore has defined her own term ‘wildness’ in contemporary painting, which she says speaks both to her approach within her practice and also suggests the state of contemporary painting through the lens of art history and its current context within the immediate conversations surrounding painting. She was awarded the Valerie Beston Award in 2020 and will have her Debut London Solo Show at Ordovas Gallery in 2021. Recent selected group exhibitions in London in 2021 and 2020 include Social Fabric at Fold Gallery, an infinity of traces (curated by ekow eshun) at Lisson Gallery, tomorrow: London at White Cube, Grads now at Saatchi Gallery, without a painter at Fitzrovia Gallery, begin again at Guts Gallery, thought threads at San Mei Gallery, and Snapshot at Hockney Gallery.

Metalsmith, Roxanne Simone is a Black British Visual Artist with a multi-disciplinary approach to contemporary craft. Simone's work focuses on the reimagining of diasporic identities, gender and the imperfect object. Through ethnographic fieldwork and an autoethnographic approach, Simone’s research aims to develop metalwork with a focus on an intersectional diasporic journey by layering contemporary art practices. Simone's metalwork explores the dismantling of physical and metaphorical boundaries within the contemporary craft, investigating through colour and materiality.

Co-founder of RCA black, Roxanne's current work focuses on jazz-centric narratives within the black experience.

Marie Smith (she/they) is a neurodivergent Visual Artist and Writer born, living, and working in London. Smith graduated in 2017 with an Ma in History in Art with Photography at Birkbeck, University of London. Being a neurodivergent person with dyspraxia and anxiety has informed how they navigate the world.

Marie’s practice incorporates digital and analogue photography alongside text as a form of visual language that addresses identity, nature, sustainability, mental health, and well-being. Marie utilises low-toxic plant, food, or herb-based developers to process their analogue film. Due to this methodology not being transferable to developing colour film, marie now only works with black and white and camera-less film processes.

Marie is a member of Women Photograph and Black Women Photographers. Marie is an associate lecturer at Kingston University London and has previously lectured at Goldsmiths - University of London, and London College of Communication.

Birmingham-born, Photographer Rashidi Noah has acclaimed notoriety within his field and established his envisioning of the world through his unique ability to capture the difficult truth of complex simplicity. Currently operating as an image designer at parisian ready to wear fashion house 3 paradis. He has built a longstanding visual relationship with artists such as Ama Lou and Jobe Burns.

Rashidi has led publication campaigns for THE502BADGATEWAY Magazine, and Notion Magazine. Alongside having his imagery selected for site-specific installations for home by Ronan McKenzie, and Piccadilly Lights via T.N.H.B.

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ART KINSHIP HIGHLIGHTED

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