Suleyman Wellings-Longmore

Painting (MA)

Maa Regi 200cm x 180cm – Acrylic on canvas with string and pine. 2024. This piece is inspired by my Nupe ancestry and informed by an experience with a Fulani community in Ghana. Continuing an exploration of the Arabic calligraphy style Kufic, this work investigates the visibility of nomadic African communities.By suspending the canvas inside the frame, I wanted to invite comparisons to the way we display ancient relics and artefacts, interrogating which histories we revere and which we revile.

Behind Enemy Lines MDF, Acrylic, Nylon string, yarn "To be born into the English language is to realize that the assumptions by which the language operates are your enemy" https://drive.google.com/file/d/1edscr8TarEMJMWJkZDHO74SUoExO2IBk/view?usp=sharing

The Owl Whispers Julie No More 2m x 2.32m – Laser cut MDF, acrylic, hemp rope, wood. 2023. This work continues my exploration of structural paintings and suspended objects, moving into lasering MDF to create the illusion of a timeless tradition. I keep coming back to the idea of a mother doing her child’s hair – a practice both tender and tough, that blends both together as a means to anchor culture and deepen bonds. .

About

Suley is a British artist of Jamaican, Nigerian and Polish heritage, and a graduate of the University of Leeds and Harvard Law School. A Sir Frank Bowling scholar on the Painting programme at the Royal College of Art, Suley’s practice is concerned with what his work does in the mind of the viewer – using the sensory, almost physical, experience of optical illusions to both force confrontation with and wrestle autonomy from the observer, whilst interrogating themes of impermanence and change.

Perception and representation are as much components of the science of optics as they are daily facets of the human experience, especially for the marginalised. In combining optical illusions and figuration – fusing painting with sculpture, design and textiles to centre the unseen, Suley invites the viewer to question where and how such communities and ideas exist within our individual and collective psyches.

The commitment to making the vulnerable more visible is rooted in his career as a human rights lawyer: Suley’s legal work consistently informs his artistic subject matter, and his legal training has inspired a creative aesthetic based on order, control and precedent. Suley cites Bridget Riley, Matt Collishaw and Tomashi Jackson as artists who have expanded his practice, alongside the literary works of Octavia Butler and the sounds of SAULT.

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