Stacey Gillian Abe
b. 1990, Uganda
Stacey Gillian Abe was born in Kampala, Uganda, in 1990. She received her BA in Art and Industrial Design from Kyambogo University, in 2014. Abe went on to present her work internationally at museums, galleries, fairs and biennales.
Stacey Gillian Abe’s work reflects her past and her memories, highlighting her personal experiences and her relationships to her community. The autobiographical dimension of her work confronts traditional depictions of the Black body, drawing attention to more cerebral aspects and challenging the colonial lens.
The concepts behind Abe’s artworks highlight specific complex situations. Drawing on early and continuous autobiographical experiences, Abe’s works offer a reassessment of conventional depictions of her as Black woman by choosing to focus on the suppleness of the mind. These images materialise as created imaginary spaces that induce a surreal mystical feel while probing unsettling past and present narratives of identity, gender, spirituality and cultural mysticism.
In essence, Abe’s autobiographical paintings explore the idea that Black identity exists without any visible means of support. Colonial paradigms have fostered a narrative that Black existence without White existence remains unenlightened. The colour indigo has become a crucial element of this narrative, highlighted through skin tone. As a colour, indigo is intertwined with narratives surrounding the Black body and its hue has subsequently become significant in the reshaping of these narratives. For Abe, this reshaping includes a drive to revisit the past in order to form a new dialogue through which possibilities of an alternate future for the Black race can be pursued. “Indigo for a skin tone in my work signifies a tribe, a breed of black, a people that are not limited to social, economic, cultural or political and historic constraints. It is being unapologetic and expressing vulnerability selflessly.” Stacey Gillian Abe
Ultimately, Abe’s artworks create an immersive and intimate space, focussing on confident and assured depictions of the Black body. In this world, these figures remain provocative, emotive and unapologetic. “Through my work, I am able to re-imagine an alternative future where, in these worlds I create, we are free, unapologetic and provocative, taking up spaces and positions only imaginable.”