LISA BRICE
Born 1968, Cape Town, South Africa. Lives London, UK.
After Embah, 2018, synthetic tempera, ink, water-soluble crayon and gesso on canvas, 244 × 205 cm (96 1/8 × 80 3/4 in), The Deighton Collection, London
Brice graduated from the Michaelis School of Art, University of Cape Town, in 1990 and then assisted the prominent South African artist Sue Williamson. Initially her practice focused on printmaking, photography and video, but from 1998, after Brice had immigrated to the UK and completed a series of residencies in Trinidad, she began to create figurative paintings that aimed at what she described as a ‘potent shift’ in how women are represented. Drawing upon historical artworks from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, contemporary pop culture and her own experience, Brice depicts women who are self-possessed and disconnected from the male gaze, defining pleasure on their terms. This is apparent in After Embah, in which Brice reimagines the seated working-class figure in Édouard Manet’s Plum Brandy (c.1877) and the black cat in his Olympia (1863), often interpretated as a symbol of female sexuality, alongside the Trinidadian singer Nicki Minaj. The title refers to the Trinidadian poet and painter Emheyo Bahabba (1937– 2015), known as Embah, who was Brice’s mentor and friend in Port of Spain.
This artist is featured courtesy Phaidon's latest publication 'African Artists: From 1882 to Now', with introduction by Chika Okeke-Agulu and glossary by Joseph L Underwood.
As featured in the New York Times, ARTnews, Colossal, Metropolis and New York Magazine’s The Strategist - the book is a groundbreaking A-Z survey of the work of over 300 modern and contemporary artists born or based in Africa.
Latitudes Co-Founder, Lucy MacGarry consulted on the selection process for the artists featured within the publication.
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