Christina Kimeze’s paintings linger tantalizingly between realms. Her images of single Black female figures drenched in colorful flora simultaneously conjure physical spaces and ephemeral inner worlds. Sometimes, these women lounge upon a sofa or shade themselves under an umbrella. These semi-abstracted scenes could be read as expressions of peaceful solitude or othered aloneness.
In her dynamic new painting Between Wood and Wheel (2024), a figure swoops through the frame with outstretched, wing-like arms that morph into the luscious foliage that surrounds them. She appears caught in sublime free movement. Her face and body are submerged in vibrant strokes of yellow that hum with joy, evoking her liberated internal state as she takes flight across the canvas.
Between Wood and Wheel is a highlight of the artist’s current solo exhibition of the same name, which runs through May 11th at South London Gallery. It’s an important moment for Kimeze—her first institutional solo show to date. She also recently gained representation with blue-chip gallery Hauser & Wirth following “Present Tense,” a group exhibition of rising U.K. artists at its Somerset outpost last year.
For “Between Wood and Wheel,” Kimeze has homed in on Black roller-skating groups in the U.K. and U.S. These paintings evoke ideas of flight, freedom, and movement. Her figures, shown in fragments of faces and torsos, appear lost in serene or elated action, soaked in bright purple, yellow, and orange. They are surrounded by a mass of energetic marks which call to mind the swell of music and the rhythmic flow of skating.
“I’ve always loved roller-skating,” Kimeze said in an interview with Artsy ahead of the exhibition opening. For this body of work, she was inspired by contemporary filmmakers documenting Black-led skate communities, such as Imani Dennison and Lauren Gee, as well as J Terrance Mitchell’s 1980 film Get Rollin’. Another influence was Serinity Young’s book Women Who Fly, which explores the feminist implications of airborne female figures in mythology. Bringing these together, Kimeze sees skating as a path to liberation, letting the body stay grounded while the spirit soars.
“I started talking to people immersed in the U.K. and U.S. [roller-skating] scenes: filmmakers, other artists,” she said, noting that the sporting culture has an almost religious following. “The feelings of flight and freedom kept coming up and that led me to folkloric depictions of women who fly… In hindsight, skating has become a motif for me, a more dynamic way of visualizing emotional spaces, memory, oneself,” she explained.
Roller-skating has boomed since the pandemic, especially in the U.S., at one point leading to reports of a global shortage of skates. Perhaps it’s no surprise that widespread isolation and confinement coincided with a need for local, socially distanced group activities led by comradery, movement, and music. Kimeze’s paintings create similar safe spaces in which it is possible for her figures to be both comfortably alone or in relation within a group. “I love that about dance or skating, where often everyone is moving in the same direction or following a routine but having a different experience. I wanted to communicate this idea of shared experience, of us all being connected in the work.”
Through her rich layering of colors and forms, Kimeze’s paintings give the impression of a forest that the viewer needs to search through for clues, with recognizable shapes drifting in and out of vision. She also experiments with perspective, especially in the new works, in which the women seem to whizz into view, pushing the viewer into a moment of lively movement. “A painting traditionally tells you where you are in relation to the work,” she said. “I wanted…to disrupt where the viewer stands in relation to the women.”
Many of Kimeze’s paintings contain layers of plants and more abstract motifs, inspired by her father’s home country, Uganda. Her densely packed, bright forms transport viewers to dreamy natural spaces, reflecting her experience of the country. “I’m often using motifs that are specific or autobiographical in some way, to forge a route through the painting which could be read as a route through the self,” she said.
Banana plants, especially the matoke variety, are abundant within her compositions. “They are endemic to where my family are from in Uganda and rooted in the country’s folklore and history: the creation myth. But also hugely linked to colonial ties,” Kimeze said, reflecting on the British Empire’s rapacious imports of the fruit from the 1800s. “In some way, I’m engaging with that, but also hoping to move past it with the ideas of freedom in these new works.”
While the plants themselves reflect a violent history, the overriding feeling in Kimeze’s paintings is that her figures are at peace. She sees the act of “sitting with the self and the power of imagination” as an important tool for change within Black communities. Through all of her paintings, the connection between the creative internal world and external reality is paramount, whether her women find restful solitude or shared exhilaration.
