About this Event
October Gallery's season of Contemporary African Art continues with internationally renowned artist and sculptor, Sokari Douglas Camp CBE's new solo exhibition of strikingly sculptures. Titled Fashion and Fortune, the artist brings together large and smaller scale steel sculptures alongside selected prints. Douglas Camp, as in previous exhibitions, mines the historical records of earlier visual artists to examine power, commerce and colonialism within a broad Caribbean and, by extension, African context.
Drawing inspiration from Robert S. DuPlessis’ book The Material Atlantic, Douglas Camp explores clothing, commerce and emblems of wealth as reflected in fashion and dress. Through intricate metal figures, elaborate headdresses, and the incorporation of coins, the artist highlights both the oppression embedded in colonial systems and the creativity with which marginalized people reasserted identity and status. Furthermore, by delving into her own Nigerian family’s complex dress code, Douglas Camp deftly plays upon imbuing fabrics and modes of dress with new meanings. With these exhilarating new works presenting an impressive selection of motifs including dazzling displays of flowers and fruit, including a lively depiction of the tropical pineapple, she observes how people of diverse ethnicities, social positions and occupations impacted the emergence of a distinctive sartorial culture across the Atlantic world.
These latest sculptures tease out the complex intertwining histories of trade, colonialism and lineage, while simultaneously celebrating the resilience of the people of Africa and the African diaspora throughout the globe. The exhibition continues to 27th June, 2026 and a Gallery Talk will take place on Saturday, 6th June, 2026.
For more information about the exhibition click the link here
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About Sokari Douglas Camp Born in Buguma, Nigeria, in1958, lives and works in London, UK.
Douglas Camp first exhibited at October Gallery in 1985. She has had more than forty solo shows worldwide and in 2005, was awarded a CBE in recognition of her services to art. Her work is in the permanent collections of the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA; Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; and the British Museum, London, UK. Douglas Camp is one of the winners of the Memorial for Ken Saro-Wiwa in London, 2007, and was also one of the shortlisted artists for the Fourth Plinth in 2003. In 2012, her large sculpture, All the World is Now Richer, a memorial to commemorate the abolition of slavery, was exhibited in The House of Commons; since touring to St Paul’s Cathedral in London, Bristol Cathedral, Norfolk Cathedral, Harewood House Trust in Leeds, and Westminster City Council Hall.
In 2016, her successful solo show, Primavera, at October Gallery, brought together major new sculptures which focussed on the reinterpretation of familiar figures from the European classic tradition as depicted by Botticelli and William Blake. Douglas Camp was selected for Ichihara Art X Mix 2020 (Japan) for which she created, on a moving tram carriage at Goi Station, a large-scale sculpture, titled Manmade. She was also one of the international artists selected to create a column for STOA16 in Polling, Germany; a globally unique artist columned permanent hall that unites contemporary artistic ideas and different cultural concepts in one place.
Her third solo exhibition at October Gallery in 2022, Jonkonnu Masquerade, included a series of new works exploring the masquerade of ‘Jonkonnu’ both within its Caribbean context and that of the broader African diaspora. This exhibition has coincided with her large-scale sculpture Europe Supported by Africa and America being displayed at the V&A to complement the Africa Fashion exhibition. Two larger-than-life-sized steel interlinking sculptures, Tussling Jonkonnu, have also been part of the Kensington and Chelsea Art Week.
In 2024, Douglas Camp was commissioned for a freedom memorial in Zaandam, the Netherlands. This public sculpture, Three Graces - The Dialogue, sits proudly in the Kleurenbuurt memorial site. This remarkable work features three sculptural women dressed alike, seated on a bench, symbolising a powerful narrative of freedom and celebration of culture of Surinam. In the same year, her striking steel sculptures were also featured in the 15th edition of La Biennale de l’Art Africain Contemporain Dak’Art in Dakar, Senegal.
In November 2025, Douglas Camp participated in the 10th anniversary of Art X Lagos with a presentation of her five Asoebi Women. She was also a key speaker at the Arete Art Foundation Symposium in Dakar, Senegal. Currently, Douglas Camp is working with Southwark Council for the potential permanent placement of her sculpture All the World is Now Richer in Burgess Park, Camberwell, London.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
October Gallery, 24 Old Gloucester St, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
