On the occasion of Richard Hunt's exhibition, ‘Metamorphosis – A Retrospective’, join us at White Cube Bermondsey for the launch of Alayo Akinkugbe’s new book, Reframing Blackness: What's Black about "History of Art"? (2025). To celebrate the release, Alayo will be joined in conversation by Lewis Dalton Gilbert and Charlene Prempeh from A Vibe Called Tech.

Reframing Blackness: What's Black about "History of Art"? is an original and wide-ranging riposte to the current understanding of Blackness in Western art and museums. Since the inception of mainstream art history, Blackness has been distinctly ignored. In Reframing Blackness, art historian, curator and founder of @ABlackHistoryOfArt, Alayo Akinkugbe challenges this void.

Exploring the presentation of Black figures in Western art, as well as Blackness in museums, feminist art movements and the curriculum, Alayo unveils an overlooked but integral part of our collective art history. Refreshing and accessible, this promises to start a much-needed conversation in culture and education.

‘Akinkugbe is a brilliant new writer and thinker challenging art history. This book is urgent, essential, accessible and it needs to be on every art history reading list.’ – Bernardine Evaristo

Pre-order your copy: Reframing Blackness by Alayo Akinkugbe | Waterstones

Doors open 6pm.

The talk will start promptly at 7pm.

Drinks will be served.

Alayo Akinkugbe graduated from the University of Cambridge with a BA in History of Art in 2021 and graduated with an MA in Curating the Art Museum from the Courtauld Institute of Art in 2023. She runs the Instagram platform @ABlackHistoryofArt, which highlights Black artists, sitters, curators and thinkers from art history and the present day; and hosts the podcast A Shared Gaze. Alayo is a contributing editor and writes the column ‘Black Gazes’ for AnOther Magazine. She was awarded a curatorial research grant by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art for the exhibition Entangled Pasts: Art Colonialism and Change at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Alayo was on the advisory panel and contributed to the book African Artists: From 1882 to Now, published by Phaidon in 2021, and has written for publications including Dazed, Tate Etc. and The World of Interiors. Reframing Blackness: What's Black about "History of Art"? is her first book.

A Vibe Called Tech is a creative studio and art consultancy dedicated to approaching creativity through an intersectional lens.

Lewis Dalton Gilbert is an independent curator and the creative director at A Vibe Called Tech. Following his BA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design, he coordinated and produced exhibitions and projects for White Cube and Frieze and is currently the associate curator for New Art Centre, where he previously served as creative director. In 2021, he curated the Hackney Windrush Art Commissions with Thomas J Price and Veronica Ryan OBE, for which Ryan won the Turner Prize. Recent independent curatorial projects include Unboxing the Collection: Exploring the Vessel, Crafts Council at Crafts Council, London (2024) Liaqat Rasul: NAU, NAU, DOH, CHAAR” at Tŷ Pawb (2024), Francis Offman: Notes from the Heart at La Società delle Api (2024), South by Southwest at Gurr Johns (2024), Pictures of Us at Gathering, London (2023), We Share the Same Sky on Vortic Art (2023), Abstract Colour at Marlborough Gallery (2023) and Peripheral Vision at Anna Schwartz Gallery (2021).

Charlene Prempeh is a Financial Times HTSI columnist and contributing editor who writes about design, travel, and culture. After studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Oxford University, she began a career in marketing and worked at some of the UK’s most prominent media platforms and art institutions including the BBC, The Guardian and Frieze where she launched their creative agency, Frieze Studio. Charlene currently consults for the Royal Academy, is a Non-Executive Director on the Tate Enterprise board, a trustee for Contemporary Arts Society, a trustee for Turner Contemporary, Committee Co-Chair for Frieze 91 and is on the jury for the London Design Biennale 2025. Charlene’s debut book, Now You See Me: 100 Years of Black Design, was published in October 2023. She is currently curating a show for the London Design Museum, which will launch in fall 2026.

Reframing Blackness: Alayo Akinkugbe and A Vibe Called Tech at White Cube