January 27 sees the opening of a well-deserved mid-career retrospective of work by Chris Ofili, at London’s Tate Britain. The show is comprised of around 45 paintings from the last sixteen years, including No Woman No Cry, his attention-grabbing piece created in the wake of Stephen Lawrence’s murder.
UK-raised Ofili first made his name outside the art-world when he won the Turner Prize in 1998, aged 30. He currently lives in Trinidad, but his bedrock of inspiration remains hip-hop culture, religious iconography and his experience of growing up in 1980s Manchester. He has cited sampling culture and remixing as an influence on his art, and has regularly used hip-hop titles in his works and exhibitions, including ‘Devil’s Pie’ (D’Angelo), ‘The Healer’ (Erykah Badu) and ‘Pimpin aint Easy’ (Big Daddy Kane).
The new exhibition is runs from January 27 through to May 16, and tickets are available to under-26-year-olds at a discounted price of £5 (with ID), normal price being £10. You can find more information here.