Hamishi Farah's Political Paintings of Beyoncé and Roberto Cavalli at Arcadia Missa

Somali-Australian artist Hamishi Farah presents four new works at Arcadia Missa in London, including a photorealistic painting of Beyoncé and Jay-Z in an Icelandic lagoon and a legal document declaring sovereignty over fashion designer Roberto Cavalli's body. The exhibition runs through 30 August. Farah's work critiques colonialism, race, and neoliberalism through appropriation of celebrity images. His painting 'Beyoncé and Jay-Z (The Love of Things)' (2023) is based on a 2014 Instagram photo of the couple at a geothermic spa in Iceland, contrasting Black American hyper-capitalist icons with a Nordic island-nation that experienced a banking collapse. A second painting, 'Roberto Cavalli' (2023), depicts the 82-year-old designer in swim trunks based on a 2013 paparazzi photo, referencing Cavalli's photoshopping of Beyoncé's curves to conform to white beauty standards. The accompanying 'Statement from Howard Kennedy LLP' declares Cavalli's body a sovereign state, parodying colonial territorial claims. A third painting, 'Live-in Whale instead of Nation State idea' (2021–23), shows a breaching humpback whale, questioning recognition of new states.