Art Basel Hong Kong 2023: Must-See Exhibitions Around Town

Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Double Dive Red (2023). Oil on canvas. 188 x 132.1 cm. © Tunji Adeniyi-Jones. Photo © On White Wall Studio.

Tunji Adeniyi-Jones: Deep Dive
White Cube, 50 Connaught Road Central
22 March–20 May 2023

Expect: a journey through the chromatic jungles of West Africa, where dynamic bodies entangled in bright foliage entrap the eye.

Tunji Adeniyi-Jones’ entrancing portraits begin from the histories of West Africa, its mythologies, and his Yoruba heritage, followed by the influence of his Black American experience. West African literature comes to the fore at White Cube, starting with the jungle as a space of transformation and possibility.

Entangled in dense, saturated foliage, genderless figures contorted in acrobatic postures are reduced to the basic outline of their musculature. Their silhouettes—at times blue, at others orange—are dotted with sharp eyes, taunting viewers to enter their fantastic realm.

Saturated colours are used to emphasise the motions around the figure, made explicit in Red Twins (2016), where crimson bodies are nestled inside a stretch of lime green ribbon accentuated with yellow. Ornate patterns nod to the 19th-century Arts and Crafts movement and more specifically the designs of the renowned ceramicist William De Morgan.