Belonging & Becoming: new mindscapes night and day

J/M Gallery is proud to present ‘Belonging & Becoming’, a spectacular new exhibition by contemporary British African-Caribbean artist Malaina Joseph-Sobers. The exhibition delves into her transformative journey from Guyana to London, in counterpoint to the experience of an earlier Windrush generation, offering a meditation on the dualism of identity and migration, of past and present, of longing and belonging, and inviting us to consider our own transitions and memories.

Born in Suriname and raised in Guyana, Joseph-Sobers’s early life was marked by the tensions in a post-colonial society that inevitably shaped her artistic lens. Moving to London at sixteen, she found herself navigating a complex and layered urban identity, while holding steadfastly to her Guyanese roots. This body of work connects her migration story to a broader historical and cultural narrative. Joseph-Sobers recalls: "I grew up in Guyana during the post-colonial unravelling of the 1990s at a time when the country was experiencing increased polarisation between people of African and Indian heritage. After moving to London, aged sixteen, my rural Guyanese background sometimes felt like a palimpsest that was being written over by a new layer of urban identity."

Through layers of abstraction, Joseph-Sobers reimagines the Guyanese savannahs of her childhood, including fishing trips, jumbie-stories around the fireside, and the earthy aroma of rain on hot soil. Her pieces, which she describes as “mindscapes,” create a space where viewers can reflect on their own memories, longing, and identity. Her technique as a painter involves dabbing, blending, brushing, and layering textures to achieve compositions that balance the physical and imagined environment. She juxtaposes monochromatic elements reminiscent of night-time in Guyana with vibrant bursts of orange sunsets and other colourful transitions. These evoke her early days in "England’s green and pleasant land", as well as the textures and rhythms of memory and its hinterland. "Perhaps that’s why I’m drawn to sfumato as a technique, because, often unconsciously, it can reveal something about the layered past and constant layering up of materials and form into some kind of inter-subjective experience."

J/M Gallery on Portobello Road is the perfect setting for 'Belonging & Becoming', owing to the area’s significance in the history of migration as a many-layered and multicultural urban tapestry that embodies the intersection of past and present, tradition and innovation, loss and self-discovery.

Opening times are 9 am - 7 pm daily, with late nights until 9 pm on the 20-22 February, including a PV on Thursday 20. Please paste the following into your search bar to book for the PV: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/belonging-becoming-private-view-tickets-1226389226189?aff=oddtdtcreator.