World Art Collections Exhibition
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts

Royal Painter in Residence
Sainsbury Centre Black History Month Highlights

Suffolk based Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy, the first black artist to paint a portrait of Her Majesty The Queen, is heading the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts’ contribution to October’s Black History Month. Chinwe has also painted portraits of Derek Wood, former Lord Mayor of Norwich and the late Geoffrey Watling, former President of Norwich City FC.

Chinwe is in residence at the Sainsbury Centre from 4 to 5 October and 9 to 10 October.

She will be drawing inspiration from African masks in the Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Centre Collection, doing her initial studies in the main Gallery and then painting in the Education Studio. People are welcome to drop-in to meet her and see her work on these days between 10am and 5pm and on 10 October there will be an end of residency celebration from 5pm which everyone is welcome to attend.

“Masks have featured in my paintings before,” said Chinwe. “I have reflected on my childhood feelings about masks and have considered how we mask our feelings in relationships. But at the Sainsbury Centre I will be responding to the themes of the Alien Nation exhibition. I will be focussing on the fear and alienation we can feel when seeing a mask. But I will also be thinking about how we use ‘masks’. We are always masking our true feelings. Visitors are very welcome to drop in and see me at work, and contribute to my residency by writing their reactions to my paintings in the bay opposite the studio.”

Chinwe is running an additional monotype workshop on Saturday 6 October. A monotype is a technique where a print is taken from a painted surface.

The Sainsbury Centre’s October programme is packed with events to celebrate Black History Month including lunchtime talks, a special First Sunday offering children chance to try mask printing on 7 October and a Big Draw event with Ugandan artist, Peter Sek, on 13 October.

The Big Draw is a national event organised by the Campaign for Drawing – at the Sainsbury Centre people will be able to get involved in helping to create a huge collaborative drawing in response to live vinyl mixing. “My inspiration for making music comes from painting” said Peter. “The more I paint the more I get inspired to create music. I also take inspiration from listening to music from Africa and around the world”.

“We are delighted to be celebrating Black History Month at the Sainsbury Centre, which links closely with the Centre’s current work on diversity. We are committed to using our world art collection to help explore ideas about race and culture and to bringing a diverse audience to the gallery” – Veronica Sekules, Head of Education and Research.

The Sainsbury Centre’s autumn exhibition, Alien Nation, also forms part of Black History Month. The exhibition which runs from 2 October to 9 December features the work of twelve contemporary international artists. David Huffman, Kori Newkirk and Eric Wesley are Black American artists and Yinka Shonibare is an African artist. The exhibition explores ideas about racial difference and racial stereo-typing through the language of sci-fi.