Malik Roberts: The Double Up

Malik Roberts: The Double Up
13th September, 2024 – 25th October, 2024
D’Stassi Art
12 – 18 Hoxton Street
(Entrance on Drysdale St)
London
N1 6NG

Celebrated Brooklyn-born-and-based painter and mixed-media artist, Malik Roberts, is set to make his London debut in a solo show, ‘The Double Up’ exhibiting all new works at Hoxton’s D’Stassi Art for six weeks from September 13th – October 25th 2024. 

Off the back of the success of his latest homecoming show “To Suffer a Lick”, which debuted in New York before travelling cross-coast to LA, as well as a recent sell-out show in Athens, Greece; Roberts intends to build on his endeavour to both distil and reveal the liminal essence that characterises black culture. This new body of work takes a closer look at outward identity and the duality of power and fragility in the act of concealment. Taking the very palpable symbol of the balaclava, a clothing item with myriad connotations increasingly adopted into popular culture, Roberts delves deeper into the psyche of his subjects, paradoxically revealing the aspects of being his protagonist feels necessary to mask, while actively highlighting the features they wish to acknowledge, even celebrate. 

Ruminating on the theme of the upcoming exhibit, Roberts explains, ‘The Double Up,’ I wanted to explore the more complex layers of identity, representing the societal and personal facades that people wear, both to protect and to obscure, examining both the seen and the unseen. Through these portraits, I hope to challenge the viewer to look beyond the masks, to confront the complexities of identity, and to understand the nuanced ways we present ourselves in a world that often misinterprets and labels us.” 

Drawn to the cultural affinity between the African Caribbean communities of New York and London, this latest show is a natural progression for artist Malik, who sees this as a moment to step outside of familiar surroundings and explore where his work fits into the wider diaspora landscape, transcending the set of circumstances that led him to where he exists now, by connecting with those that resonate with his work in a way he hasn’t previously had the opportunity to. “My connection with London stems from my Caribbean immigrant family- when my family came to America, I had some family that ended up going towards London. I feel like the story and the narrative that I bring from my side will relate to a lot of people, and taking my work further, gives me the chance to be a connector between dysphoric black communities across the world.” 

Moving away from the precision and clean lines of past work, Roberts introduces free-hand techniques, utilising oil sticks to bring further texture and provide a more layered, complicated narrative that plays further into the theme of concealment, leaving theories on what lies beneath the masked figures of Roberts’ collection, more open to the beholder’s interpretation. 

For Michael Howes, Managing Director and co-founder of D’Stassi Art, Robert’s debut London show has been years in the making, and represents a personal milestone in the trajectory of the disruptive East London gallery; “Malik Roberts has been among my favourite artists for years now so I’m incredibly proud and excited to be able to work in partnership for ‘The Double Up’ and share this new series of work here in London for the very first time. At D’Stassi we are first and foremost collectors, and the journey to hosting Malik started around 6 years ago when I came across the work in his small Brooklyn studio and I knew straight away he had a story to tell.

I went on that year to collect two works from Malik and, while I have keenly watched as his career has gone from strength to strength, with each sell-out body of work taking on a life of its own, we have remained in close contact, waiting for the right moment to finally team up and share his art here in London.”

Malik Roberts: The Double Up opens on the 13th of September, 2024 until the 25th of October, 2024 at D’Stassi Art

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