Recognising and Celebrating our Differences through Art

Alleyn’s Multicultural Week kicked off on Monday 6 February with a stunning Art Exhibition organised by the Alleyn’s Minority Student Union (MSU) in collaboration with the Art Department.

Art is a powerful platform for exploring cultural identity, including investigations into the personal, political and historical discourse of a culture and it’s a brilliant way to recognise and celebrate our differences.

The artwork in this exhibition brings together students’ pieces from a range of year groups. There is a moving backdrop to each student’s works, some of which are directly inspired by their parents’ migration to this country. All works express or represent either directly or indirectly multicultural identity and empowerment and are a celebration of diversity in our community.

Richard in Year 10 has created a beautiful piece representing his family’s journey between 1945 and 2023. He said:

“My parents originated in China. They took a plane and a risk to England with only 100 USD in hand and a dream for a future. They got married and their document photos are presented in my painting as sepia portraits. The love letters and envelope are more personal items that represent their love for each other. The composition is framed by a large magnifying glass with a gold frame. This magnifying glass is reference to the one that my grandma brought across on her journey to England. Now she uses it to read books with but I’ve used it to show differences between old and new. The words on the right mean ‘painting is not only an art but another point of view’ showing that even two different styles can link together and a new way of looking can open peoples’ eyes and make them understand the history and the present at the same time. This is my representation of my family’s journey between 1945 and 2023.”

Ria in Year 12 said about her piece:

“My piece was inspired by the idea of the absence of the mind while we are physically present in situations. I made all three faces looking in different directions to express how we can drift off in our own minds when we are in the present. I think the bright variety of colours evoke a mixture of different emotions and moods that we experience daily. My artists for inspiration was inspiration was Jenny Saville and her painterly brushwork and Joshua Miels’ technique of allowing the background to come through in the piece.”

Alongside these student works we are lucky to be able to exhibit two large scale, powerful paintings by award-winning artist, Johan Andersson, who is British with a black Swedish mother and a white British father and who is now based in LA.

We are very grateful to Charles Boyd, an Alleyn’s parent, who has kindly allowed us to display them for this exhibition.

After graduating from Central St. Martin’s London, Johan Andersson became the youngest ever artist to be shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award and was named in The Independent’s Top 20 Artists. His work has been displayed at the National Portrait Gallery, The V&A Museum, The Saatchi Gallery and he has exhibited work alongside artists including Anish Kapoor, Damien Hirst, Francis Bacon, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Tracey Emin Lucien Freud, Sir Peter Blake and Howard Hodgkin.

Johan painted the first official portrait of human rights activist Mariam Ibrahim in 2015. She was sentenced to death for Apostasy and given 100 lashes for marrying a Christian man. She was later rescued as a result of an international outcry that included the voices of such luminaries as Angelina Jolie, President Obama, Clinton, Prime Minister David Cameron and Pope Francis.

The two pieces on display in the Alleyn’s exhibition are Blood and Water (2015) and Gloria Your Just where I want you (2012). Blood and Water really brought healing for the paintings subject, who was a sex worker from the Bronx. Her friends, who work in the same profession, broke down in tears after seeing it, commenting that it represented so many women they know. In this painting, Johan aimed to illuminate the juxtaposition between their abuse and pain and their breakthrough. Issues of generational female black slavery are subtly addressed. This painting brought a deep sense of restoration for Johan, allowing him to realize art can change lives.

Anderrson’s second piece on display won the Art Takes Paris competition in New York. Andersson described the motivation behind the piece had come from a dream in which he saw a man on his knees in tears, realising that the world promised so much but never delivered. Out of heaven came a voice ‘You’re just where I want you right now,” in your weakness my strength and love is made known. It is an encounter which speaks to the man’s truest identity.