Sikelela Owen @ Taymour Grahne Projects

Sikelela Owen’s Steady Love takes its name from India Arie’s 2019 song of the same title. The lyrics describe a love, a cut above the rest – in charm and tender devotion. This love is from a man who possesses an attractive balance between honest affection and understanding. This dynamic kinship empowers his loved one in a multidimensional way.

In these paintings, expressions of love and connectivity are realised in the seconds before the main events of intimacy and embrace. There are painted figures made up of curved limbs, shoulders that heed, and outstretched arms that knowingly contour to the shape of a cohort. These bodies are never quite separate, rarely angular; they are people, personalities, and faces that seldom exist without the physical presence or memory of another. Owen takes these figures from family photographs and stills, merging them with art historical references from the past and present.