We are pleased to share the announcement of “Queen Mudda”, Cydne Jasmin Coleby’s first solo exhibition in London. The exhibition is curated by Natalie Willis, Associate Curator at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, and explores ideas of matriarchy, celebrating women as the backbones of family lines. It runs March 26 to April 23, 2021 at Unit London.
All Black women are Queens. This is the heart of the body of work presented by Cydne Jasmin Coleby for Queen Mudda - her celebratory and unabashed first solo show in London.
There is a severe exploitation of unseen labor in Black women the world over. In a time where we are contending with severe patriarchy, Coleby gives us a moment to consider the matriarchs of our family lines. Queen Mudda is a celebration of the women and girls in our families - those who have the broadest shoulders and are the backbones of our family lines. Using her family archives and storytelling, we are offered up a moment to consider the ways in which all mothers may be considered queens in their own right. With nods to Rococo, but also to the hyper-embellishment of the Caribbean and African diaspora, we are at once given the frills and ruffles of the Baroque period, alongside the vibrating patterns of African wax print fabric, Junkanoo, and Carnival. Performance is the undercurrent of this work: the performance of womanhood, of respectability, of being. In a world where being is appearing, Coleby offers the matriarchs of her family line the opportunity to appear as elevated as the care they give.
-By Natalie Willis, Curator of Queen Mudda
Cydne Jasmin Coleby (b.1993) is a digital and mixed media collage artist based in Nassau, Bahamas. Coleby attended The University of The Bahamas where she received her associate degree in art in 2012. She then went on to work as a freelance graphic designer, specializing in brand design. She has worked with numerous companies including Adworks, Poinciana Paper Press, Popopstudios International Center for the Visual Arts and The Island House. She served as Creative Arts Design and Communications Manager for The Current: Baha Mar Gallery and Art Center. In 2018, Coleby reintroduced her art practice at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas as part of their Ninth National Exhibition with a body of work entitled A God Called Self. She continues to produce digital and mixed-media collages which investigate the transformative effects of trauma through a personal lens. Her work has been exhibited in galleries within The Bahamas, France and London. Coleby’s artwork is a part of local and international collections, including the private collection of acclaimed art advisor and curator, Maria Brito.
About Unit London
Since the brand’s inception in 2013, Unit London has established a global artistic platform for the world’s most distinctive emerging talent. In an often opaque and impenetrable art world, Unit London seeks to identify, cultivate and expose works of art on a purely meritocratic basis. The gallery has successfully launched and advanced the careers of numerous important contemporary artists and remains a bastion of equity, innovation and sustainability. Unit London prides itself on being an open and transparent institution whose purpose is to expand and diversify contemporary art audiences. In its reluctance to simply follow the traditional gallery formula, Unit London has become synonymous with the pioneering use of social media and digital content. The gallery endeavors to act as an orator and mediator: telling the story of today’s most gifted artists, whilst bridging the gap between the physical and virtual spheres of the art world; connecting people with the art they love.
