Rotimi Fani-Kayode: Tranquility of Communion
The Polygon Gallery, North Vancouver, BC - To May 25
Organized by Autograph (London) and the Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus), and presented as part of the 2025 Capture Photography Festival, this exhibition marks the Canadian premiere of a major survey on the short but influential career of British-Nigerian artist Rotimi Fani-Kayode, known for photographic portraits that celebrate same-sex, multi-racial love; spiritual (Yoruba) reverence; and queer activism.
Born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1955, Fani-Kayode emigrated with his family to the UK in the 1960s, settling in Brighton, where he attended private schools before moving to the US in 1976. While pursuing an MFA at the Pratt Institute, he became friendly with the American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, whom he credits as an influence.
“Rotimi Fani-Kayode’s photographs have been seen internationally for decades and are represented in major collections around the world,” says Mark Sealy, the exhibition curator and executive director of Autograph. “Some of these images are 40 years old, yet still feel incredibly contemporary. Fani-Kayode’s work not only reflects a specific period of time and a moment of queer life, it also opens up new possibilities for us to exist in this world. There is much that we can still learn from his prescient vision.”
In his curation of Tranquility of Communion, Sealy took a chaptered approach. “Theatre” focuses on Fani-Kayode’s large-scale colour photographs; “Archive” features the artist’s experiments with Polaroids, in addition to hand-coloured vintage prints and drawings; “Studio” is made up of contact sheets; and under the “Museum” banner, gelatin silver prints.
