Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955-1989)
Fani-Kayode escaped the Nigerian Civil War as a child and later attended Georgetown University. Influenced by his Yoruba upbringing and Mapplethorpe, he developed a body of stylized photographic portraits of Black men that explore the tension between sexuality, race, religion and culture before he died prematurely, at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Organized by Light Work, in partnership with Autograph ABP, and curated by Mark Sealy and Renée Mussai, this exhibition includes additional works and texts organized by Professor Ian Bourland to further illustrate Fani-Kayode’s engagement with a tumultuous era.
This exhibition is generously supported by Maria & Alberto de la Cruz.
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Rotimi Fani-KayodeEvery Moment Counts (Ecstatic Antibodies), 1989Ink on etching rag30 x 30 in. -
Rotimi Fani-KayodeFour Twins, 1985Ink on etching rag19 x 28 3/4 in
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Rotimi Fani-KayodeGrapes, 1989Ink on etching rag30 x 30 in.
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Rotimi Fani-KayodeNothing to Lose XII (Bodies of Experience), 1989Ink on etching rag30 x 30 in.
Born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1955, Fani-Kayode moved to London with his family at the age of twelve to escape the Nigerian Civil War. His father Femi Fani-Kayode was also a politician and chieftain of Ife, the ancestral Yoruba capital who raised his family in this tradition. Fani-Kayode reflected on and explored his Afro-diasporic roots in many of his artworks and offered a glimpse into his identity as a queer Black man during the postcolonial era at the end of the 19th-century. Fani-Kayode produced these images of queer Black men, including nude self portraits, to explore the realms of race, culture, spirituality and politics.
