Lubaina Himid: Make Do and Mend

SEPTEMBER 13, 2024-FEBRUARY 8, 2025

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The recipient of the 2024 Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize, British artist Lubaina Himid presents Make Do and Mend, a solo exhibition comprising two new bodies of work: a suite of Strategy Paintings that depict Black men and women seated around tables featuring different configurations of objects—in each case, imagining a specific problem to be solved; and an arrangement of sixty four plank paintings entitled Aunties, building on her previous plank works that evoke the form of funerary objects from East Africa. This exhibition is co-organized by The Contemporary Austin.

Throughout a career spanning four decades, Lubaina Himid, a self-described “painter and cultural activist,” has expanded the possibilities of storytelling through painting as a means of exploring the legacy of British colonialism and its effects on marginalized peoples. Best known for an innovative approach to painting and social engagement, Himid has actively made space for the expression and recognition of the Black experience and women’s creativity—playing a pivotal role in the British Black arts movement in the 1980s and becoming the first Black woman to win the Turner Prize in 2017. Rooted in personal experience, Himid’s practice traces childhood memories, such as joining her mother, a textile designer, on trips to clothing and fabric stores. The translation of these experiences is often found in the artist’s paintings and in installations woven with cultural heritage and found objects such as plates, discarded furniture, jelly molds, and newspapers.

Make Do and Mend debuts two new bodies of work, made for the exhibition. In Himid’s Strategy Paintings, Black men and women are depicted around tables featuring different arrangements of objects, such as lemons, teeth, poisonous flora, etc., used to work through and/or resolve a specific problem. By showing both the acts and process of decision-making, specifically by a gathering of subjects whose motives remain unknown, the paintings encourage reflection on those in positions of power who make decisions far removed from our daily lives. This conversation is extended through the installation of chairs placed throughout the galleries, which are available for the public to stop and rest, ponder, and meditate.

Sixty-four plank paintings entitled Aunties build on Himid’s previous plank works, which evoke the form of funerary objects from East Africa. The title of these works references the figure of the “auntie,” an interstitial role that is both familial and friend. Constructed from architectural remnants, bits of furniture, floorboards, and travel crates, which are then painted and embellished with a variety of objects, each plank embodies a unique character, underscoring Himid’s ongoing interest in the politics of discarded materials. The choreography of the installation encourages visitors to be conscious of the space, and to consider the inherent, expressive potential of materials beyond their practical application.

With these two new bodies of work, Himid intensifies a focus on power relations, material history and social engagement. Her paintings, whether on canvas or wood plank, allow for the development of new strategies for personal comprehension and social connection.

Director of The FLAG Art Foundation, Jonathan Rider added, “In many ways and forms, Himid’s practice makes private moments public, and in doing so invites viewers to project their own experiences and histories onto the work. Presenting Himid across two venues, each with distinct regional contexts, allows for differing conversations, programming, and possibilities to occur. Himid has spoken about the exhibition as a site for chance encounters, and we look forward to seeing how audiences between Austin and New York inhabit, activate, and interact with the theatrical and deeply personal world she creates.”

“Make Do and Mend is an ambitious example of the kinds of projects we’re focused on here at The Contemporary Austin,” says sharon maidenberg, Executive Director and CEO of The Contemporary Austin, “Work that is aesthetically and formally excellent, that also provokes visitors to experience a myriad of feelings, thoughts, and emotions. I look forward to seeing new audiences encounter Lubaina’s work in New York and am eternally grateful to Suzanne Deal Booth for her vision and to The FLAG Art Foundation for their partnership and support in realizing such an important endeavor.”

Make Do and Mend is accompanied by a fully illustrated exhibition catalogue co-published by The Contemporary, FLAG, and Dancing Foxes, including contributions by the artist; Alex Klein, Head Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs and Julie Le, Assistant Curator, The Contemporary Austin; Jonathan Rider, Director, and Caroline Cassidy, Director of Exhibitions, The FLAG Art Foundation; Dorothy Price, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Critical Race Art History at The Courtauld Institute of Art; and Zoé Whitley, Director of Chisenhale Gallery, London, United Kingdom.

About:

Lubaina Himid CBE RA (b. 1954, Zanzibar, Tanzania) is an artist and educator living and working in Preston, United Kingdom. Himid studied Theatre Design at Wimbledon College of Art and went on to receive an MA in Cultural History from the Royal College of Art. She received the Turner Prize in 2017 and was the subject of a major survey at Tate Modern, London, UK, in 2021–22. Other recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE (2023–24); Glyndebourne Opera Festival, East Sussex, UK (2023); Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland (2022); Hollybush Gardens, London, UK (2022, 2019, 2018, 2013); Tate Britain, London, UK (2019); Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, The Netherlands (2019); CAPC Bordeaux, France (2019); New Museum, New York (2019); Spike Island, Bristol, UK (2017); and Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK (2017). Her work is in the collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, NY; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; National Museums, Liverpool; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; Royal Academy, London, UK; Tate, London, UK; and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK; among others. Himid is the 2024 recipient of the Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize, and was also awarded the Maria Lassnig Prize in 2023, with a related upcoming exhibition at UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China.

The Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize selects each recipient based on their outstanding merit, strong record of international exhibitions, and the transformational impact the award stands to have on their career and the Austin and New York communities. A rotating independent advisory committee made up of curators and art historians of contemporary art selects each year’s recipient. The prize includes an unrestricted $200,000 award, a full museum solo exhibition that premieres at The Contemporary Austin and travels to The FLAG Art Foundation in New York, an accompanying publication, and related public programming.

The Jury for the 2024 Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize was led by sharon maidenberg, the Ernest and Sarah Butler Director & CEO of The Contemporary Austin, and included Wassan Al-Khudhairi, co-curator for the 2025 Hawaii Triennial; Pilar Tompkins Rivas, Chief Curator at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, CA; Michelle White, Senior Curator at the Menil Collection, Houston, TX; and Zoé Whitley, Director of Chisenhale Gallery, London, United Kingdom; along with institutional advisor Jonathan Rider, Director of The FLAG Art Foundation. Himid is the fourth artist to receive the award. Past awardees include Rodney McMillian (2018), Nicole Eisenman (2020), and Tarek Atoui (2022).

FLAG would like to recognize all those individuals who helped realize Lubaina Himid: Make Do and Mend, including our colleagues at The Contemporary Austin, Glenn Fuhrman and Suzanne Deal Booth, Greene Naftali, and Hollybush Gardens.

#LubainaHimid

Press:

“[Lubaina] Himid, a British artist who was born in a region of Tanzania, is the first Black woman to win a Turner Prize. Her exhibition at FLAG, Make and Do Mend, has traces of the artist’s background in theater design: Her paintings here suggest a roguish drama, with the recurring tables hosting casts of characters and their plots. The hallmarks of Himid’s style—aggressive flatness and jarringly bright coloration—mingle with the stuff of an uncanny imagination.”

—Zoë Hopkins, The New York Times

“‘Making art is about making decisions,’ she [Lubaina Himid] says. One brushstroke at a time, she has decided to keep going, to keep making art that explores the virtually impossible—be it solving global challenges or embodying the complexity of the auntie figure with bits of salvaged wood. Her work has a quiet force to it, the kind that spurs not only contemplation, but optimism. Maybe the answers to our questions are there for us, her art suggests, if we just listen.'“

—Grace Edquist, Vogue