Artist: Christina Kimeze

For her first solo exhibition with Hauser & Wirth, British artist Christina Kimeze presents new paintings that explore what she calls ‘the in-between spaces’ where boundaries between interior life and shared experience blur and evolve. Kimeze’s canvases depict ethereal landscapes and enigmatic figures, some solitary and others intimately connected. Tactility is an essential element of these works; made on a foundation of suede matboard, they combine dry chalk, oil pastel and wet paints which Kimeze crushes into the fabric. This technique endows her paintings with an aura of indeterminacy that underscores the mutable nature of her subject matter.

The exhibition title is taken from the Thom Gunn poem, ‘The Life of the Otter, Tucson Desert Museum’ (1992), in which the late poet imagines the swift, circular movement of an otter underwater and likens the creature’s ‘Long loops’ and ‘figures of eight’ to those made by a ‘lithe skater.’ Gunn alternated figures and settings to illustrate a fluid symmetry between species, gestures and identities. Kimeze echoes this shapeshifting and circularity through representations of water and roller skating, which evoke themes of freedom, movement and flight. Kimeze also draws inspiration from the recent resurgence of roller skating in Black communities throughout the UK, including her own neighborhood in East London. The circular rink and spinning wheels suggest continuous motion set in deliberate contrast to the grounding presence of the rink’s traditional wooden flooring.

Across the exhibition, Kimeze’s paintings similarly recall the contradictory experience of being grounded while simultaneously soaring through space. The effect is heightened by the artist’s handling of materials: the absorbent suede matboard slows the painting process and introduces a sense of friction, reinforced by Kimeze’s adroit blending of dry and wet media.

Recurring motifs—abstracted foliage, architectural arches—give structure to Kimeze’s compositions while complicating the dynamic between private and shared spaces in each painting. Works such as ‘bloom how you must (I)’ (2025) and ‘bloom how you must (II)’ (2025), both employ the spiral staircase as a metaphor for the evolution of identity. These works take their title from another influential poem—Lucille Clifton’s ‘mulberry fields’ (2004)—that Kimeze understands as a call to recognize the many facets of the self. Throughout the exhibition, Kimeze’s figures remain partially concealed, embedded within dense surroundings or pushed to the edges of the picture plane, each populating dreamlike scenes that invite viewers to ponder their own interior landscapes.

‘Long loops’ follows Kimeze’s first UK solo exhibition at South London Gallery, ‘Between Wood and Wheel’ (31 January – 11 May 2025).

About the artist
Christina Kimeze (b. 1986) lives and works in London. She received a postgraduate degree from The Royal Drawing School in London, UK, and in 2022, she was awarded the Sir Denis Mahon Award. Prior to this, Kimeze completed an undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford, UK.

Kimeze’s first UK solo exhibition at South London Gallery, ‘Between Wood and Wheel’ (31 January – 11 May 2025) was accompanied by a monograph that features writing by Eleanor Nairne, The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art and Head of Department at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and a conversation between the artist and Alayo Akinkugbe, writer, art historian and founder of Instagram platform @ABlackHistoryOfArt. Recent exhibitions include ‘Women & Freud: patients, pioneers, artists,’ Freud Museum, London, UK (2024); Drawing Biennial 2024, Drawing Room, London, UK (2024); ‘Soulscapes,’ Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, UK (2024); ‘Present Tense,’ Hauser and Wirth Somerset, Bruton, UK (2024); ‘Something other than the world might know,’ White Cube, Paris, France (2023); ‘Interior,’ Michael Werner Gallery, London, UK (2023); and ‘The Great Women Artists IV,’ Residency at Palazzo Monti, Brescia, Italy (2022).