Hayward Gallery will present an exhibition by Tavares Strachan titled There Is Light Somewhere from the 11th of June until the 1st of September, 2024. Acknowledged as one of his generation’s most compelling and imaginative artists, Strachan has been creating daring and inventive exhibitions over the past two decades.
The diversified exhibition will focus on how Strachan’s art brings attention to cultural visibility issues. It is committed to telling the tales of unsung explorers and overlooked cultural trailblazers.
The exhibition will be showcasing three thematic segments of Strachan’s work. The first part will focus on Strachan’s early work, addressing his exploration experiences and challenging historical stereotypes. It will pay homage to pioneers like Mathew Henson, an African-American explorer. The second part will focus on Strachan’s Encyclopedia of Invisibility, which features 17,000 entries detailing extraordinary figures forgotten by history. Lastly, the focus will be on Strachan’s latest work, which explores Strachan’s visionary remapping of lost connections to traditional African cultures.
Talking about his art, Strachan said: “My practice as an artist is a quest to reveal hidden histories and to tell lost stories with a weight that matches the profound nature of the characters I speak for. I have always thought about making as a form of storytelling, a way for us to engage in things that might be more difficult to grasp during the normal course of our day.”