Festival of Encounters

TALK:

Reframing Blackness

Alayo Akinkugbe discusses her debut book, Reframing Blackness with moderator, Precious Adesina. Akinkugbe explores how since the inception of mainstream art history, Blackness has been distinctly ignored, with this new body of research

In Reframing Blackness, art historian and founder of @ABlackHistoryOfArt, Alayo Akinkugbe challenges this void.

Exploring the presentation of Black figures in Western art, as well as Blackness in museums, in feminist art movements and in the curriculum, Alayo unveils an overlooked but integral part of our collective art history.

Refreshing and accessible, this promises to start a much-needed conversation in culture and education.

There will be a 30-min book signing after the event.

Sunday 28 September 1.30–2.30pm

Van Gogh House, 87 Hackford Road, London SW9 0NB

BOOK TICKETS

Alayo Akinkugbe [she/her] is an art historian and curator. She founded @ABlackHistoryofArt on Instagram, hosts the podcast A Shared Gaze, and writes the “Black Gazes” column for AnOther Magazine. A Cambridge and Courtauld graduate, she has written for Dazed, Tate Etc., and The World of Interiors. She contributed to African Artists: From 1882 to Now and was awarded a Paul Mellon Centre curatorial grant for Entangled Pasts at the Royal Academy. Reframing Blackness is her first book.

Precious Adesina [she/her] is a freelance journalist with a background in History of Art. Her work explores the intersections of art, culture, lifestyle, and social politics, often centring on underrepresented artists and overlooked perspectives in the UK and internationally. Formerly at The Telegraph, she now regularly writes for leading outlets including The New York Times, BBC Culture, The Guardian, Financial Times, The Economist, and The Art Newspaper, among others. Adesina has been invited to speak at institutions such as Whitechapel Gallery, the Barbican Centre, Nottingham Contemporary, and University College London, her alma mater. Across both her journalism and public engagements, she consistently highlights how art reflects, challenges, and reshapes today’s social and cultural landscape.