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Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 10am - 5pm
Wednesday: 10am - 5pm
Thursday: 10am - 5pm
Friday: 10am - 5pm
Saturday: 10am - 5pm
Sunday: 11am - 5pm

Habib Hajallie: Penned into History

[ Exhibition )

Drawing and collage of 4 men with the same face and different clothing in ball point pen on antique typewritten paper showing a staircase and landing

Habib Hajallie, The Large Collectors, 2023, Ballpoint on antique texts, © The Artist.

Discover thought-provoking works in Habib Hajallie’s groundbreaking exhibition challenging colonial narratives and redefining British portraiture.

Habib Hajallie’s ballpoint pen drawings focus on the lack of diversity in British portraiture. He combines precise mark-making with collaged elements from texts and maps. His works challenge colonial ideologies and the divisive histories of West Africa.

One of the highlights of the exhibition was The Large Collectors. This new drawing was created during Hajallie’s residency at the Gallery as part of UAL’s Decolonising Art Institute’s 20/20 program. It is a monumental self-portrait showing Hajallie as three of the men who started our collections – Walter Hussey, Charles Kearley, and Colin St John Wilson. Putting himself in their shoes, Hajallie looks to disrupt the image of the typical modern British art collector.

Drawing of a man in sat at a table drawn in black pen onto a white background with a bookshelf with many different colour books behind him on a bright red background.
Drawing and collage of 4 men with the same face and different clothing in ball point pen on antique typewritten paper showing a staircase and landing
Ballpoint sketch of a sitting woman wearing a sleeved dress and a head scarf on a patterned background of different shapes and colours.
Black ball point pen sketches on top of found printed text. Sketches of a man sat in an armchair wearing a black suit and white shirt with arms resting on the rests, a man to his right standing with arms up and thumbs up smiling manically wearing a white vest with Obey across chest and tracksuit bottoms. Along the top of the work are 4 sketched framed portraits. Furthest left is of a bearded man with a peaked cap smoking, next right is a profile shot of a man in a white tshirt, next right is a man with a beard and big hair with a hand to the right reaching out to touch it and last right is a man with a moustache and wearing a shower cap.