Joy Labinjo

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Joy Labinjo is a British–Nigerian artist based in London. Born in 1994 in Dagenham, England, to Nigerian parents, she makes large, colorful paintings of Black people in everyday moments. Her work uses a flattened perspective and bold brushstrokes, often starting from collages made from old family photos and other found images.

Education and early recognition
She earned a BFA in Fine Arts from Newcastle University in 2017. That year she won the Woon Art Prize, which included a residency and led to representation by Tiwani Contemporary in London. In 2020 she began an MFA at the University of Oxford and did a residency at the Breeder Gallery in Athens.

Key exhibitions and projects
Labinjo’s first solo show, Recollections, opened in 2018 at Tiwani Contemporary. In 2019 her work appeared at Frieze London, and her major solo institutional show Joy Labinjo: Our Histories Cling to Us opened at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. She also showed at ART X Lagos in 2019.

Moving beyond family photos
Her work began to address broader themes, including race and history. In 2020–2021, amid the Black Lives Matter movement, she created paintings like Enough is Enough and The Real Thugs of Britain. She also spent time at the Breeder Gallery in Athens, where her solo exhibition The Elephant in the Room was shown, and she made work shown in the United States at Art Basel Miami Beach.

Public commission and the Brixton piece
In 2021 Labinjo was commissioned by Art on the Underground and created 5 More Minutes for Brixton Underground station. The large painting, celebrating Black hair salons and community, was installed from November 2021 to November 2022.

Recent shows and themes
In 2022 she presented Full Ground in Lagos, a branch of Tiwani Contemporary, and Ode to Olaudah Equiano in Wales, expanding her focus to other Black British historical figures. Through these works, Labinjo continues to explore culture, identity and belonging, drawing on memory, history and current events, all in vibrant, accessible paintings.