Somaya Critchlow

Somaya Critchlow, born in 1993 in London, lives and works in the same city. She graduated with a degree in Painting from the University of Brighton before joining the Royal Drawing School in London, where she earned a Postgraduate Diploma in 2017. In April 2023, she held her first institutional exhibition in North America, titled Somaya Critchlow: Paintings and Drawings, at the FLAG Art Foundation in New York.

Critchlow's works, primarily intimate and small-scale portraits of Black women, draw inspiration from the painting traditions of the Renaissance and Rococo, reality shows like Love & Hip Hop, and her own memories. By merging such diverse influences, her representations of Black femininity present a complexity that has traditionally been reserved for bourgeois white subjects in the history of Western art. Her ongoing series of portraits serves both as a historical reevaluation and a joyful act of world-building.

The collection features three of her works, all untitled and created in 2024. These pieces highlight a soft, inviting world filled with women who embrace their sensuality and sexuality with pride. The protagonists present themselves unapologetically to the viewer, inviting them into their intimate universe.