Aollani Rose portrays a friend of the artist wearing indigenous regalia inspired by tribes from the Omo Valley region of Ethiopia. The reference for the painting was taken during a promotional photo shoot Golding organized in 2017 ahead of his first solo exhibition titled “OMO”.

Jay Golding

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Jay Golding’s figurative paintings and drawings evoke mythology, migration, and interconnectedness, creating literal and symbolic layers employed by vibrant palettes in acrylics and oils, sometimes incorporating collaged or impastoed elements. Golding’s emphasis on tribal cultures within his work, often infuses Caribbean and African cultural motifs allowing him to draw parallels between various communities–expressed by his masked figures and other fictional characters such as the purple-skinned beings from the village “Maji ya bluu”, which is Swahili for blue water. Golding frequently signs his work under the pseudonym Kwame, a name he donned after visiting Ghana in 2019 with his family. He cites his trip to the West African nation as well as Mexico as being life changing and having profound effects on his work.