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A new exhibition of limited edition prints by Rotimi Fani-Kayode, in collaboration with Hales Gallery New York
Hales Gallery
547 West 20th Street,
New York, NY 10011
Find directions, opening hours, accessibility and ticketing information on Hales Gallery's website
Hales Gallery New York presents Forest of Metaphor, a solo exhibition of works by Rotimi Fani-Kayode. In his third solo exhibition with the gallery, the exhibition features black and white photographs from the mid-to-late 1980s, most of which have never-before-seen works.
In 2024 and 2025 exhibitions of Fani-Kayode's work included a retrospective at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio, USA, which toured to The Polygon Gallery, Vancouver, Canada as well as a significant solo exhibition at Autograph, London.
Presenting Fani-Kayode's monochromatic work made in his home studio in Brixton, South London, where he created some of the most striking works of his career. The studio was his sanctuary, to explore aspects of himself and others with a sense of freedom and intimacy. As his models were friends, neighbours and collaborators from his locale, the studio became a social hub. The resulting photographs reflect the diversity of Brixton in the 1980s. Across these works, his acute eye for composition and balance is evident: bodies are carefully positioned within the frame, where gesture and tonal contrast create visual tension and harmony.
The exhibition takes its title from an essay Metaphysick: every moment counts written by Fani-Kayode and Alex Hirst, which describes the complex ambitions of Fani-Kayode's images. Pioneering at the time of creation, his masterfully staged and crafted portraits remain powerful, yet resolutely ambiguous, visual statements.
The works in Forest of Metaphor are available for acquisition. Contact Hales Gallery or request a preview via their website.
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Rotimi Fani-Kayode (born 1955, Lagos, Nigeria – died 1989, London, UK) is a widely recognised and seminal figure in contemporary art. At the core of his practice is a critical emphasis on the cultural politics of difference.
Fani-Kayode was born into a prominent Yoruba family before moving to England following the 1966 outbreak of civil war in Nigeria. He studied at Georgetown University and the Pratt Institute in the USA, before settling permanently in London in 1983 where he lived and worked until his early death from a short illness on 21 December 1989.
His photographs have been exhibited internationally since 1985, with numerous solo and group exhibitions. In 2003, his work featured in the African Pavilion at the 50th Venice Biennale, and today his works are represented in major public and private collectors. Many of Fani-Kayode’s photographs were created in collaboration with his late partner Alex Hirst, collected in the posthumous publication Rotimi Fani-Kayode and Alex Hirst: Photographs (1996). Alongside his practice as an artist, Fani-Kayode was one of the first chairs of Autograph, London.
Banner image: Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Untitled [detail], 1988. © Rotimi Fani- Kayode. Courtesy of Autograph, London
Exhibition preview (all): Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Untitled, 1988. Courtesy Autograph, London.
About the artist: Sunil Gupta, Portrait of Rotimi Fani-Kayode. © and courtesy Sunil Gutpa.
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