Cover Tatler Asia’s arts and culture editor, Aaina Bhargava, engaged in conversation with Adeniyi-Jones (Photo: Anna Koustas / Tatler Hong Kong)
Tatler Asia’s arts and culture editor, Aaina Bhargava, engaged in conversation with Adeniyi-Jones (Photo: Anna Koustas / Tatler Hong Kong)
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As part of the city’s art week, Tatler Asia and The Hong Kong Jockey Club continued their partnership presenting high-quality events with Evolving Legacies: In Conversation with Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, an exclusive breakfast dialogue at Central’s White Cube Gallery on March 25
Adeniyi-Jones, who was in town to present Deep Dive—his first solo exhibition in Asia—and attend Art Basel, is a British-Nigerian artist known for boldly coloured paintings that draw on the history and mythology of his Yoruba heritage and often inspire comparisons to the fauvist paintings of artist Henri Matisse. Club members in attendance at the gallery on the Saturday morning toured the intimate exhibition and heard Adeniyi-Jones discuss his works and influences.
Artist Tunji Adeniyi-Jones arriving at “Deep Dive” exhibition at White Cube Gallery (Photos: Anna Koustas / Tatler Hong Kong)
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As they arrived, guests had the opportunity to wander through the gallery and view the exhibition first hand. There were animated discussions comparing the cool, blue-toned paintings downstairs and the fiery, orange-hued ones upstairs, as guests mingled over champagne and canapés.
Then they sat down to an artistic breakfast, where everything from the floral centrepieces on the tables to the two-course menu—mango, pear and pomelo to start, and seared Boston lobster with scrambled organic egg as a main—was rendered in the same vivid colour palette of oranges, yellows and pinks as the art on the walls.
Over breakfast, Tatler Asia’s arts and culture editor, Aaina Bhargava, engaged Adeniyi-Jones in a fascinating conversation. Members listened in riveted silence as the artist spoke about his experiences as a Black artist in the UK and the US, how discovering artists like Bob Thompson and Barkley Hendricks has influenced his work, the impact that the rich worlds of manga and anime have had on the art world at large, and his creative process for the artwork in the Deep Dive exhibition.
Above The “Deep Dive” exhibition at White Cube Gallery (Photos: Anna Koustas / Tatler Hong Kong)
Above Adeniyi-Jones with an HKJC member at the “Deep Dive” exhibition (Photos: Anna Koustas / Tatler Hong Kong)
The “Deep Dive” exhibition at White Cube Gallery (Photos: Anna Koustas / Tatler Hong Kong)
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“Colour’s a really important part of my work and certainly coming [to Hong Kong] and knowing that certain colours signify or mean particular things felt like a really nice opportunity to use these warm reds, oranges and yellows versus perhaps mixing the palettes,” Adeniyi-Jones noted.
As the discussion drew to a close, there were questions from the audience—and a particularly light-hearted moment as Adeniyi-Jones referenced his parents’ willingness to let him pursue his artistic studies through secondary school and university—before guests got up to take photos, spend more time browsing the art and chatting with the artist.
