Almost Acquaintances

In the 21^st century world of twerking, social media and oft-discussed ideas of increasingly sexualised promotion for pop stars, these are loaded questions with any number of answers – ones which photographer and artist Tameka Norris is addressing in her new show at London’s Ronchini Gallery.

The exhibition includes photography, video, painting and installation works by the New Orleans-based artist, who creates work that mixes low and high-brow culture to explore ideas of personal identity and race.

For one performance piece, she re-stages Michelangelo Pistoletto¹s sculpture Venus of the Rags, 1967 ­ 1974, taking it a starting point from which to explore the presence of black women in the history of painting.

Elsewhere, she looks at the devastating aftermath of hurricane Katrina in her native New Orleans, creating large-scale painted works that are made using oil paint on stretched bed-sheets. 

Ronchini Gallery says, ‘Her work investigates what is happening socially, physically and emotionally as the site undergoes gentrification and the buildings she has previously depicted in her works are torn down and reconstructed.’

Tameka Norris: Almost Acquaintances is at Ronchini Gallery 22 Dering St, London W1S until 29 March www.ronchinigallery.com