About the artist

Lubaina Himid (b. 1954, Zanzibar) lives and works in Preston, UK, and is Emeritus Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Central Lancashire. She is the winner of the 2017 Turner Prize.

Many of Himid’s recent paintings show young men, well dressed and standing awkwardly with each other. They are in a moment of indecision, about to decide what to do next. Some figures are outlined in charcoal – the traces suggest they are in states of transition or on the verge of appearing.

Himid has exhibited extensively in the UK and abroad. A major monographic exhibition of Himid’s work opened at Tate Modern, London, 2021. Significant solo exhibitions include Spotlights, Tate Britain, London (2019); The Grab Test, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, The Netherlands (2019); Lubaina Himid, CAPC Bordeaux, France (2019); Work From Underneath, New Museum, New York (2019); Our Kisses are Petals, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2018); The Truth Is Never Watertight, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (2017); Navigation Charts, Spike Island, Bristol (2017); and Invisible Strategies, Modern Art Oxford (2017).

About the artwork

Himid writes: “I often refer to the men in these works as pastry chefs. This is to imply that they have worked all day to make something exquisite which someone else will admire and eat. The moment of the painting is at the end of the day, the moment of ‘in between’: the liminal time/space which could later be described as between now and then, today and tomorrow or a state of being alone and being together.”