Joy Labinjo is one of those lucky people who describes their childhood as “idyllic”. Born in 1994, she grew up playing in the streets of Dagenham, running between her family’s three-bedroom semi-detached and her grandparents’ house a few streets down to drink cups of tea and dip biscuits into them until they were soggy. There were birthday parties on Saturdays and church on Sundays. Around the age of 10 she gained a reverence for her community, taking it upon herself to organise the family photographs. Carefully she laid them out in albums, labelling the dates and adding the names of people she could remember. Her initial work as a figurative painter consisted of reinterpretations of these beloved moments.
Although these images were honouring her love of family, her mother and father (a teacher and biochemist respectively) took a while to come round to the idea of her pursuing art as a career. But the last few years have seen Labinjo’s star rise. She completed a residency in Greece, has exhibited her work at the Royal Academy and in galleries from Newcastle upon Tyne to Lagos. Moreover, as you walk down the stairs of Brixton tube station you are greeted by a huge mural celebrating the buzz of Black hair salons that she was commissioned to paint by Art on the Underground.
