'In The Black Fantastic': Lina Iris Viktor presents at the Hayward Gallery

Lina Iris Viktor has been included in one of the best and most exciting exhibitions this year In The Black Fantastic, curated by Ekow Shun, at the Hayward Gallery in London's Southbank Centre. This exhibition features work from 11 contemporary artists from the African diaspora whose praxis explore notions of Afrofuturism, science fiction, imaged futures, mythology, and a deep knowledge of the world.

In the Hayward Gallery are Lina's works from her series, previously debuted at the New Orleans Museum of Art, A Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred, amongst two of her totemic sculptural creations made from Volcanic rock. Mapping and cosmology, material and substance, origin and future — it is no easy task trying to condense Viktor's complex study as it endlessly evolves and transforms over her career. One thing, however, that it returns to is Blackness:

"There’s so much about Blackness in my work, Blackness that goes beyond conversations around race, to more universal implications of blackness and how we have negotiated negative connotations that always exist around blackness and darkness. And so to be called In the Black Fantastic just turns that whole idea on its head."

We are thrilled to see the work we have worked on with Lina continue to travel the globe and contribute to ongoing conversations more and more pertinent. Watch the video to learn more about this presentation in an interview with Lina and the gallery.

Exhibition photos courtesy of the Hayward Gallery. Studio photographs taken by Brooklyn Editions. All artwork courtesy of the artist, Lina Iris Viktor.