About

NOW Gallery on Greenwich Peninsula announces the 2022 Young Artist Commission, ‘Feeling Good’ by Joy Yamusangie. Free to view from 24 March – 5 June 2022, Joy invites the viewer to interrogate constructs around identity and celebrate self-expression. The artist conjures up the stylish ‘Feeling Good’ jazz club, creating a series of intimate and evocative spaces to inhabit NOW Gallery and immerse the viewer.

The exhibition’s physical space is deliberately contextualised by an accompanying jazz score, revealing deeply personal narratives.

Joy’s coveted works use textural materials to convey a sophisticated and multifarious style which features illustration, collage, painting and sculptural interventions. Their work often features expressive mark making and the use of deliberate, flat vivid blocks of colour to create figurative renderings.

‘This imaginary club became a vision for me, a space that symbolised gender euphoria and speaks specifically to my own experience with understanding and celebrating my trans identity and my journey with learning music. I was inspired by the main character in the book Trumpet by Jackie Kay which I later learnt was based on the real life story of musician Billy Tipton. Thinking of how music, specifically Jazz, allowed both the fictional character and the real musician Billy to find a home for themselves.’ –Joy Yamusangie

Associated events:
PRIM Presents…Illustrators to the Front
Sunday 15 May

To complement Joy Yamusangie’s ‘Feeling Good’, PRIM is offering an interactive workshop designed to provide illustrators with insights and tools to earn commissions in publishing. Their friends at a well-known publishing house have agreed to lead a free two-hour workshop to give you all the tips you need to be the next book cover designer. You could also earn yourself an actual paid commission for a paperback book. Open to all, PRIM encourages visitors from Queer and Black communities.