James Tuitt’s paintings begin as warm, surreal spaces that serve as a backdrop to centre the beauty of black women.  Drawing from an extensive personal archive of fashion magazines collected over the span of 10 + years as source material, James seeks out the contributions of black models who pushed through fashion’s barriers to become part of inspiring, empowering images.  These images may not previously have been celebrated and were rarely used as magazine covers, so James has instead created covers of his own.  

James also credits many nights of escapism spent on London dance floors, along with years crafting department store window displays, as both contributing to his desire to create new worlds of possibility and wonder in his paintings.  James refers to these worlds as ‘Black Girl Spaces’, prepared and dedicated prior to the inspiration for the subjects being selected from within the pages of James’ collection of glossy fashion magazines.

Enter the virtual viewing room:

More info about the Summer exhibitions:

https://www.neverapart.com/exhibitions/