Fragments of Reality

Fragments of Reality was Ken’s solo exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, in 2023. Made after his move from Lagos, the paintings consider how decisions about place and identity continue to shape our lives long after they are made.

Bright colour fills the canvases while figures appear in partial views. Some meet our gaze through carefully painted eyes; others turn away. These shifts of focus echo the way a memory can hold one detail clearly while the rest of the scene changes or disappears.

The exhibition also included Journey Mercies, an installation of painted cardboard boxes bearing portraits of migrants, and work suspended above the gallery like clothes on a line. Together the paintings and installations make room for individual stories within a shared experience of leaving, arriving and remembering.

Curated by Dolly Kola-Balogun.