Tavares Strachan, Intergalactic Palace (2024) and Ruin of a Giant (King Tubby) (2024). Exhibition view: Tavares Strachan, There Is Light Somewhere, Hayward Gallery, London (18 June–1 September 2024). Courtesy the artist and Hayward Gallery, London. Photo: Mark Blower.
Tavares Strachan, Black Star (2024). Exhibition view: Tavares Strachan, There Is Light Somewhere, Hayward Gallery, London (18 June–1 September 2024). Courtesy the artist and Hayward Gallery, London. Photo: Mark Blower.
Tavares Strachan, Inner Elder (Nina Simone as Queen of Sheba) (2023). Exhibition view: Tavares Strachan, There Is Light Somewhere, Hayward Gallery, London (18 June–1 September 2024). Courtesy the artist and Hayward Gallery, London. Photo: Mark Blower.
Tavares Strachan, There is a Light in Darkness (2024). Exhibition view: Tavares Strachan, There Is Light Somewhere, Hayward Gallery, London (18 June–1 September 2024). Courtesy the artist and Hayward Gallery, London. Photo: Mark Blower.
Tavares Strachan, Invisibility Paintings (2018–2023). Exhibition view: Tavares Strachan, There Is Light Somewhere, Hayward Gallery, London (18 June–1 September 2024). Courtesy the artist and Hayward Gallery, London. Photo: Mark Blower.
Tavares Strachan, A Map of the Crown series (2022–2024) and Mind Fields series (2023–2024). Exhibition view: Tavares Strachan, There Is Light Somewhere, Hayward Gallery, London (18 June–1 September 2024). Courtesy the artist and Hayward Gallery, London. Photo: Mark Blower.
Tavares Strachan, The Encyclopedia of Invisibility (2014–2018) and Six Thousand Years (2018). Exhibition view: Tavares Strachan, There Is Light Somewhere, Hayward Gallery, London (18 June–1 September 2024). Courtesy the artist and Hayward Gallery, London. Photo: Mark Blower.
Tavares Strachan, The Encyclopedia of Invisibility (2014–2018) and Six Thousand Years (2018). Exhibition view: Tavares Strachan, There Is Light Somewhere, Hayward Gallery, London (18 June–1 September 2024). Courtesy the artist and Hayward Gallery, London. Photo: Mark Blower.
From trekking to the North Pole and returning with a block of ice to launching a satellite sculpture into orbit to honour the first Black American in the U.S. space programme, Tavares Strachan‘s approach to art is experimental and engrossing.
At Hayward Gallery in London, the Bahamian artist recently opened his first mid-career survey, There Is Light Somewhere (18 June–1 September 2024).
The exhibition features monumental sculptures, including a large ship floating on a lake on top of the Gallery’s brutalist building. The ship is modelled after an ocean liner from Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey’s Black Star Line shipping company. Also featured are huge collages, neon works, ceramic vases, bronzes, and mixed-media installations that occupy entire rooms.
Spanning two floors, the exhibition invites viewers to delight in Strachan’s thirst for knowledge. Works on view delve into rich histories, challenging prevailing white Western narratives and uncovering overlooked, ignored, or erased Black histories.
One standout work is The Encyclopedia of Invisibility (2018), which meticulously chronicles individuals, places, and events marginalised from other histories. Strachan’s compendium is a written and illustrated sculptural object that offers an alternative to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The volume is displayed at the centre of Six Thousand Years (2018), a wall-to-wall installation of excerpted pages overlaid with diagrams and photographs. The presentation at once illuminates and obscures the entries, creating a layered and thought-provoking visual experience.
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