The Black Artists Transforming Our Space for Walthamstow Art Trail
- Jun 3
- 5 min read
Updated: Jun 5
This year, The Lemon Seed Project is opening its doors for two Saturdays to a group of artists whose work spans portraiture, abstraction, photography, collage, sculpture, textiles and illustration as part of Walthamstow Art Trail at Havant House.
Some examine identity and heritage. Others explore memory, community, humour, politics or belonging. What connects them is a commitment to storytelling and a distinctive visual language that stays with you long after you've left the room.
The artists featured here represent different generations, disciplines and perspectives, offering a glimpse into the richness of contemporary Black artistic practice today.
Over two weekends, our home gallery will become a space for discovery, conversation and collecting.
Meet the artists transforming our space for Walthamstow Art Trail.
Stephen Anthony Davids
Stephen Anthony Davids is known for creating portraits on canvas, paper and found objects that explore questions of inclusion, equality and belonging. Rooted in present-day London while drawing connections across cultures and histories, his work focuses on solitary figures and the stories they carry. The face — particularly the eyes — sits at the centre of his practice, acting as a vehicle for communication, expression and connection. Individual works emerge from a compulsion to create in the moment, while together they form an evolving archive of cultural, historical and personal observations.
Artwork Featured in the Art Trail
Instagram: @stephenanthonydavids
Website: stephenanthonydavids.com
Nicoy Downes (DOWNES)
Working primarily in oil paint, DOWNES draws inspiration from both his Caribbean heritage and his experience of growing up in Britain. His paintings often centre portraiture, dynamic perspectives and carefully considered colour palettes that encourage viewers to bring their own interpretations to the work. Influenced by artists including René Magritte and Kim Jung Gi, his practice balances technical skill with experimentation, creating paintings that feel both familiar and unexpected.
Artwork Featured in the Art Trail
Instagram: @downes.art
Website: downesart.com
Aisha Ayoade
For Aisha Ayoade, home is something we carry rather than somewhere we live. Born in Lagos and now based in London, her work draws on memories of childhood, migration and the rituals that create comfort and belonging. Through painting and sculpture, she explores home as a practice of rest, gathering and connection. Much of her current work sits under the title Délé, a shortened version of Bámìdélé, the name given to her by her late grandmother. In Yoruba, Délé translates as "arrive home" — a thread that runs throughout a body of work rooted in the objects, traditions and memories we collect along the way.
Artwork Featured in the Art Trail
Instagram: @aishaayoade
Website: dele.world
Ore Adedeji
Ore Adedeji's work explores heritage, identity and cultural legacy through richly layered portraiture. Drawing inspiration from the relationship between Africa and the diaspora, she combines traditional oil painting with hand-crafted stencil patterns influenced by Ankara fabrics. The result is work that celebrates culture, belonging and the visual languages that connect generations and communities.
Artwork Featured in the Art Trail
Venetta Nicole
Venetta Nicole's multidisciplinary practice explores abstraction as a way of understanding the complexities of everyday life. Through colour, line, shape and texture, she creates works that examine identity, perception and human connection. Alongside her abstract paintings and expressive portraiture, her sculptural practice draws on architectural movements including Bauhaus, Brutalism and Deconstructivism. Through cutting, layering and assembling wood, she creates forms that balance structure with spontaneity. Central to her practice is a belief that abstraction is not a distance from reality, but another way of engaging with it.
Artwork Featured in the Art Trail
Instagram: @venetta_nicole
Website:venettanicole.com
Lauren Little
Lauren Little works across collage, painting and installation to explore reinvention, resilience and the ongoing process of change. Her work exists in the space between "who we were, who we are, and who we are becoming." Through bold colour and fragmented forms, she constructs layered compositions that reflect how we piece ourselves together through loss, growth and transformation. As both an artist and educator, Lauren's practice is grounded in a belief in creativity's power to help us better understand ourselves and the world around us.
Artwork Featured in the Art Trail
Instagram: @artoflol
Website: artoflol.com
Rebeckah Kemi Apara
Known for her work as a textile designer and embroidery artist, Rebeckah Kemi Apara began painting in 2025 as a way of exploring creativity through a different lens. Her vibrant and expressive paintings are deeply personal, often shaped by memory, grief and healing. Her work Head and Shoulders was inspired by the American artist William H. Johnson and emerged following the loss of her mother. Through colour and gesture, painting has become both a creative outlet and a source of comfort.
Artwork Featured in the Art Trail
Instagram: @embellishedtalk
Chikaora Obiora
For Chikaora Obiora, making is a form of storytelling. Working across photography, collage and paint, she uses images in place of words to record the experiences, memories and relationships that have shaped her life. Drawing from personal archives and found photographs, her work centres Black women and the important roles they occupy within cultural and communal spaces. Bold colour, layered imagery and everyday moments become a way of exploring identity, heritage, celebration and connection.
Artwork Featured in the Art Trail
Instagram: @csobiora.art
Tee Max
A camera borrowed from his mother at the age of eleven sparked what would become a remarkable photographic archive. Throughout the 1990s, Tee Max documented the rise of Hip Hop and R&B, photographing artists before fame transformed them into global stars. Alongside music photography, his archive spans architecture, fashion, street culture and everyday encounters. More than three decades later, these images offer an intimate record of cultural moments, creative communities and lives in motion.
Artwork Featured in the Art Trail
Instagram: @teedilla71
Website: teemax.photography
Kazvare Made It
Kazvare Made It has built a devoted following through her bold illustrations exploring the humour, contradictions and everyday realities of Black British life and the wider diaspora. Combining bright colours with sharp cultural observations, her work tackles identity, politics and community through a visual language that feels both playful and incisive. Despite collaborations with organisations including Tate Modern, adidas, Meta and O2, Kazvare remains anonymous, preferring people to encounter her ideas before they encounter her. Following the success of her debut solo exhibition, There's Rice at Home, at Lemon Seed Project, her work continues to connect with audiences through equal measures of humour and truth.
Artwork Featured in the Art Trail
Instagram: @kazavaremadeit
Website: kazvaremadeit.com
Ebonie Riley
Bristol-based artist Ebonie Riley creates bold mixed-media portraits informed by culture, heritage and identity. Working across acrylic paint, collage and drawing, she combines colour, texture and mark-making to create powerful figurative works. Largely self-taught, her practice continues to evolve through experimentation and a commitment to developing a distinctive visual language rooted in personal experience.
Artwork Featured in the Art Trail
Instagram: @eboniemarrett
Website:differentbyebonie.com
Violeta Sofia
Born in Cameroon and raised in Spain, Violeta Sofia brings a rich multicultural perspective to her work as an artist and photographer. Her portraits explore identity, diversity and human connection, often combining vibrant colour with the dramatic lighting influences of the old masters. Alongside her artistic practice, she is a passionate advocate for female representation and inclusivity within the arts. Whether photographing public figures or creating personal projects, her work is driven by a desire to challenge perceptions and celebrate the complexity of human experience.
Artwork Featured in the Art Trail
Gary March
Gary March is a sculptor, painter and designer whose work is shaped by his Caribbean heritage, childhood in Birmingham and training as an architectural stone carver. Working with reclaimed materials, found objects and stone, he explores sustainability, value and transformation. "There is no such thing as rubbish," Gary says, viewing discarded materials not as waste but as objects rich with history, texture and possibility. His sculptures become collaborations between artist and material, revealing stories about place, labour, memory and the environment. Through his practice, Gary invites us to reconsider what we choose to keep, discard and value.
Artwork Featured in the Art Trail
Instagram: @garymarchdesign
Website: garymarchdesign.co.uk
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