Caroline Chinakwe

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City where you live:

Statement : 

My whole life has always been lived as a creative. I was a creative before I knew I was anything. Over the last 35 yearsI have battled with self confidence as a creative, never feeling quite good enough and jumping from one creative project to the another and hoping to find that one project that I truly felt passionate about. I thought drama was it, then music, then song writing, fashion and even cooking. None of them gave me the thing I was looking for. Until one day, while stil struggling to make it as a fashion stylist and crafting collages of fashion styles that I hoped would get me the type of work I wanted, someone one day looked at my work and  called me an artist.

At first I rejected it, because art really wasn't where I wanted to go or had ever in my life thought of going. I hardly visited museums, apart from the masters that everyone else knew of, I didn't have a clue of modern artist or what the art world was doing. I had been in fashion for over 25 years and that was all I knew.. But I found myself eager to wake up earlier and earlier each  morning to create art, to create new pieces. Something I rarely found myself doing in fashion. Ideas constantly formed in my head  and I found it hard to keep up. The passion I had searched for all my life finally found me. As a 49 year old, single mother of 3, I had finally found my rightful place and to be named artist of the month tells me the world also sees me in my rightful place.

Let Go of your Past
“Let go of your past” is my first real work produced as an artist and from my debut series This is me.. This pieces really is a symbol of letting go of my past as a fashion designer and throwing everything I had into art. As a self taught artist, I knew in my head what I wanted to create ans wasn’t sure I would be able to bring that our in a piece and aftwrbexperimenting with different mediums and methods, I realised I came up with a style that worked well for me and allowed me to create a piece that showed who I could be as an artist. This piece includes, photography, acrylic details and digital collaging.
Work Credit: 
Jewelry is inspired by jewelry artist Anita Quansah
Prideful
This is from my Colourism series and was one of the first pieces created during the 2020 lockdown and following the murder of George Floyd. If questioned race, the injustice we experience as black people and why our skin tone is such a problem.
I can’t be stung by you
“ I can’t be stung by you” is from my series This is me and like all the titles from that series, reflects what I went through during my transition from fashion to art ans the fear, lack of confidence and uncertainty I experienced during that time. As a single mother of 3, taking the leap into an unknown territory, in a world that wasn’t easy for most people let alone a black female.
Work Credit: 
Hat by child of the jago
Queen.
Queen is from my Colourism series and created during the 2020 lockdown and following the murder of George Floyd. If questioned race, the injustice we experience as black people and why our skin tone is such a problem.
Spiritual
Spiritual is from my Colourism series and created during the 2020 lockdown and following the murder of George Floyd. If questioned race, the injustice we experience as black people and why our skin tone is such a problem.
Bio: 

Caroline Chinakwe is a London based, Nigerian-born and self-taught, mixed-media artist. A London College of Fashion alumni, Caroline has over 20 years experience working in the fashion industry in various capacities, 

 

Caroline’s transition from fashion to art was both surprising and organic. In 2017, noticing the lack of diversity and positive representations of black models and designers in fashion media, Caroline started creating visuals made up of mixed media collages of black models, that portrayed the types of images she felt was a true representation of black people, their culture and style, using her background in fashion and styling as her first point of inspiration. 

The artist’s passion and love for her background and culture is very evident in her work and through her work she addresses social and race issues including diversity, inclusivity and the fight for acceptance and love for all cultures and race. Her desire is that her work evokes excitement, pride, inspiration, curiosity, joy and appreciation for all beauty, style and culture in all of it’s glory.

United States
San Francisco
United States
CAMBRIDGE
Russian
Solnechnogorsk
Netherlands
Rotterdam
United Kingdom
london

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