Photographer Joy Gregory, of Jamaican parentage will open an exhibition at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton in early 2020 titled ‘Breaking Barriers.’ The exhibition includes portraits of five prominent Black British women, continuing the series ‘Stories of Black Leadership’ that focusses on women from a diversity of fields who, as Gregory states, “have broken through barriers to open doors and make a significant contribution to society and the world.”
Gregory’s inspiration for her works comes from portrait paintings of the 17th, 18th, and 19th century depicting European white men that were commissioned to indicate their position and power. The artist says she has “utilised these tropes to picture the selected women as being truly in their power and claiming their rightful seat at ‘the table’.”
