Reintroducing a pioneering artist whose practice focused on representations of black womanhood, Maxine Walker: Untitled is a poignant exploration of identity by a young artist at the height of her career – using photography to interrogate the intricacies of skin, blackness and being.

Active between 1985 – 1997, this is Maxine Walker’s first solo exhibition in more than twenty-two years.

In her seminal series of self portraits Untitled (1997), Walker draws our attention to the features of her face in closely-cropped black and white photographs. The sequence of ten portraits share a charged visual journey as she seemingly peels away layers of her surface skin, conjuring a narrative that is more sinister than playful, intimating that her blackness cannot – and must not – be stripped away. Magnifying the delicacy of her skin, we are invited to consider complex notions of beauty, masquerade, and vulnerability.