Shaqúelle Whyte’s Asia Debut Weaves Grief and Memory

Description

Marking his first solo exhibition in Asia, London-based artist Shaqúelle Whyte presents Nine nights; Strange fruit at White Cube, a lyrical exploration of grief, memory and ancestral connection. Rooted in the Jamaican Nine Nights funerary tradition — a communal wake that unites mourning and celebration — the series carries forward the rhythms of diaspora, turning rituals of farewell into painterly meditations on love and endurance. The title also draws from Strange Fruit, the 1939 poem later sung by legendary artists Billie Holiday and Nina Simone, whose haunting imagery denounced the racial violence inflicted upon African Americans.

Highlights include “On to the next: the break up,” coffin bearers emerge from, or descend into, a clouded abyss, while “Form IV: did you really give your all,” where six figures are depicted in various states of funeral attire as though just returned from the gravesite.

Born in Wolverhampton and trained at the Royal College of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art, Whyte works primarily in oil on canvas. His work is held in the collections in key international institutions such as The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.