Public Dialogue: Rotimi-Fani Kayode

Join Georgetown University art history professor Dr. Ian Bourland for a dialogue about the influence and legacy of photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayode. This public program is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955 – 1989).

Fani-Kayode escaped the Nigerian Civil War as a child and later attended Georgetown University. Influenced by his Yoruba upbringing and Robert Mapplethorpe, he developed a body of stylized photographic portraits of Black men that explore the tension between sexuality, race, religion, and culture before he died prematurely, at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Organized by Light Work, in partnership with Autograph ABP, and curated by Mark Sealy and Renée Mussai, this exhibition includes additional works and texts organized by Professor Ian Bourland to further illustrate Fani-Kayode’s engagement with a tumultuous era.