CasildART brings back Some of Us Are Brave – a group exhibition honouring and celebrating Black women artists.

Some of Us Are Brave explores the feminine, form and function in the production of Black women’s art. The original exhibition showcased the work of nine emerging artists, variously expressing ideas of what it means to be a Black woman and artist in this moment. The newly reprised exhibition brings in several new artists including Caroline Chinakwe and Sharon Adebisi.

Among the artists featured in the original show are Bokani and Hannah Uzor. Bokani appeared on the BBC1 ‘Painting Challenge’ and was a winner of the public vote. We are delighted to feature some new works by Bokani whose vibrant paintings push at the boundaries of abstraction. Hannah, who often features on CNN & Sky News, portrait of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, (Queen’s Victoria’s Black goddaughter) is an emergent star. The exhibition features two earlier works: ‘Don’t Touch My Hair and ‘Inititation Journey to Womanhood’ .

The title of the show takes its name from a book of Black feminist writings published in 1982 entitled: All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave. The collection of essays was edited by Akasha (Gloria T.) Hull and Patricia Bell and was the first comprehensive writings on the issue of race and gender in the US, covering everything from racism and sexism to the role of Black female artists. It was also one of the first texts to talk about the intersection of class, race and gender as a way of explaining how Black women’s views and experiences were often marginalised in conversations about race and gender.

Black women artists have used art to convey narratives about race, culture, identity as well as to document and celebrate Black life, but their artistic contributions are often overlooked. This exhibition will open up conversations about how art can provoke, inspire and transform our thinking on a range of issues from visual language to representation and ecology.