STYLE CONGO: WHERE IT ALL STARTS AND WHERE IT ALL ENDS?Architect and cofounder of Traumnovelle, Johnny Leya invites us on a journey where architecture and visual arts intersect to challenge inherited colonial narratives. Spanning from the late 19th century, when Belgium established the Congo Free State in 1885, through to Congo’s independence in 1960, the talk traces how Belgian Art Nouveau absorbed Congolese resources and visual motifs, embedding imperial ideologies into celebrated European aesthetics.

Ugonna Hosten talks with Adjoa Armah about the imaginative journey into her ancestral spiritual and cultural roots that defines her practice. 

This theme explores how artists transform humble or found materials — cardboard, beads, market remnants — into carriers of memory and meaning. These materials speak to histories of migration, trade, and belonging, and to the ways everyday objects can embody resilience, identity, and the idea of “home.”

This conversation proposes to examine the role that certain galleries are taking on today by going beyond traditional commercial functions to become true micro-institutions. Engaged in the construction of a critical and decolonial discourse, these entities invest themselves in the work of repairing and rewriting parts of art history by mobilising rigorous processes of research, archival investigation, and artistic lineage. 

This talk convenes art historians, curators, collectors, and enthusiasts to critically examine the oeuvre and legacy of Ben Enwonwu, a pioneering Nigerian modernist. The programme will feature in-depth analyses of Enwonwu’s innovative synthesis of traditional African art and modernist idioms, with a focus on his impact on global artistic trends and the contemporary art market.

Join Artist Rachel Jones and curator Jane Findlay for an inspiring conversation and wine reception.

£30

Co-curators of the exhibition, Lagos Studio Archives, will discuss their ongoing work in preserving works from the studio. They will select a range of works to expand on the history and legacy of the archive. Join us as we explore the legacy of Nigerian photography in this exhibition, and ensure its contributions are recognised within the broader cultural history of photography.

£5

Join Artistic Director of October Gallery, Elisabeth Lalouschek, in conversation with Director of Special Projects, Gerard Houghton, for a talk which aims to unpack these intriguing questions, using the works in Vital Force to highlight 45 years of October Gallery’s partnership with some of the world’s most renowned contemporary artists.

Disabled access is available as the talk will take place on the ground floor, within the exhibition, Vital Force.

Join South African artist Alice Mann and Nigerian-South African photographer Ayesha Kazim in this new talk

Price: £8, £5 members & concessions

Hear Darren Newbury speak about Ernest Cole and his landmark photographic book, House of Bondage

Price: £8, £5 members & concessions

A talk and screening from filmmaker Ben Rivers. His films are intimate portrayals of solitary beings or isolated communities, between documentary and fiction.

£8 full, £6.50 concessions, half price for Blue Members

Sir John Akomfrah will discuss his practice and career with curator Tarini Malik, from groundbreaking multi-channel film installations such as Vertigo Sea (2015) to his recent commission Listening All Night to the Rain (2024) by the British Council to represent Britain at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2024.

£20/£12 in person or £10/£8 online

Step into an artist’s studio with this film screening and in-conversation

£10/ £7 / £5 Concessions

This talk examines how cultural exchange during the 1920s in Berlin, Paris, and the USA shaped contemporary understanding of race

£5 / £3 Concessions

An ‘in conversation’ public talk at the V&A to share knowledge and insight into discussions on Anti-Racism and Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion within the Arts, Heritage, and Cultural sector.

Free

Join Joy Johnson as we seek to explore luxurious items patronised by the wealthy which symbolised the identity of the New World, the “Americas” during the 18th & 19th centuries.

Free

Join this discussion on the theme ‘movement’ led by artists, curators and museologists.

Using Keith Piper's Viva Voce as a reference, we will examine, collaboratively, how public institutions approach presenting contested art objects and artefacts in the present day and consider future contexts and solutions for the wider museum sector. We will be joined by practicing artists, creatives, academics, curators and museologists for a roundtable talk that gets to the heart of these complexities and hear from the audience too how institutions can be best equipped to navigate these conversations.

The discussion will take place in the JMW Turner display.

£5 / £3 Concessions

The Picture Description Talk series Picture Description talks are designed for our blind or visually impaired visitors. Delivered by our trained guides, each talk introduces paintings from our Collection or the exhibition followed by a group discussion.

Free

LR Vandy will discuss her new works and artistic practice in a Gallery Talk with Elisabeth Lalouschek, October Gallery’s Artistic Director.

October Gallery is delighted to present the second solo exhibition of LR Vandy, following last year’s display of her large-scale installation, Dancing in Time: The Ties That Bind Us, a five-meter-high rope sculpture commissioned for the International Slavery Museum’s Martin Luther King celebrations at Liverpool’s Canning Dock waterfront.

Free

Felix & Spear present Speak To Me Great Lionheaded Ancestors, an exhibition of sculptures and wall-based works by Fowokan George Kelly (b. 1943).

Free (rsvp essential)

The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation is pleased to present Miyuki Okuyama’s first UK solo exhibition, Japan, outside Japan. The show will feature Okuyama’s two recent works, Dear Japanese: Children of War (2012-17) and Michinoku Homeward: Walking towards the Northeast (2021).

Free

Following their successful programme Decolonising the Body, Skaped has curated this exhibition of community art as a celebration of the experiences and learning undertaken.

Free (booking required)

Using archival footage and photographs from Nigeria and the UK, the film explores the experience of being mixed race. It concludes by shedding light on concealed systems that exploit the ongoing displacement and redirection, pushing individuals in need away from supportive networks and towards trauma and suffering.

£5 / £3.50 concessions

Writer, editor and journalist, Niellah Arboine, whose work explores the complexities of Black belonging in nature, will facilitate a conversation that considers the role of artistic practice and expression to create and assert a new kind of belonging in Britain’s colonial landscape.

£10 onsite / £8 online

At this Late at Tate Britain experience workshops, performances, DJ sets, talks and displays that imagine new futures, question the role of mothers in society and explore the politics of the body.

Free

This BSL talk will look at highlights from our Soulscapes exhibition. You will have the opportunity to visit the exhibition independently following the talk.

Free

A group exhibition of cross-generational painters, 'Accordion Fields' presents a selection of works across both of Lisson Gallery’s London spaces. All eight artists, whether born or based in the UK or internationally, initially cultivated their artistic talent in London, studying at one of the city’s prominent arts schools and often in direct dialogue with one another. Across a thirty-year span, the artists have witnessed a multiplicity of socio-political shifts, including London’s evolving relationship with the rest of the UK, Europe and the world, and an evolution in the position of British painting on a global stage. With works in the show spanning densely layered landscapes to compressed portraits and composite re-imaginings of past events, the participating artists together produce a symphony of painterly styles, exploring the indeterminate, liminal and multi-dimensional notions of space.

One day Event

Delve into a stellar artistic career spanning over 50 years with guest speakers Susi Sahmland, Frank Bowling Studio; artist Rohan Ayinde; and Beatriz Lobo Britto, Curator at the Institute of International Visual Arts in London (iniva).

Free (Booking required)

An exciting discussion about the role that heritage sites play in uncovering hidden histories and re-presenting a fuller, richer story of Britain told through the stories of the many, not the few. Join us in this conversation with Sandra Shakespeare and Tracey Sage of Museum X, with Dr Errol Francis, representing Culture&. At the nexus of artistic intervention, gallery spaces, and community engagement, these three speakers will respond to the exhibition, posing provocations such as: How do we redefine portraiture? Is the future gallery Black and British?

£10