Welcome to a preview of Full Coverage at Never Apart Gallery in Montreal, Quebec Canada, featuring the work of London based artist James Tuitt. The exhibition launched online as a virtual tour on July 8, 2020 on Never Apart’s website and social media channels, and was displayed from July 17 - Sept 25, 2021.
James Tuitt’s paintings begin as warm, surreal spaces that serve as a backdrop to centre the beauty of black women. Drawing from an extensive personal archive of fashion magazines collected over the span of 10 + years as source material, James seeks out the contributions of black models who pushed through fashion’s barriers to become part of inspiring, empowering images. These images may not previously have been celebrated and were rarely used as magazine covers, so James has instead created covers of his own.
James also credits many nights of escapism spent on London dance floors, along with years crafting department store window displays, as both contributing to his desire to create new worlds of possibility and wonder in his paintings. James refers to these worlds as ‘Black Girl Spaces’, prepared and dedicated prior to the inspiration for the subjects being selected from within the pages of James’ collection of glossy fashion magazines.
I spoke with James about his exhibition via Zoom in July 2021: