Redefining Beauty with Caroline Chinakwe

Nigerian-born, London-based mixed media artist, Caroline Chinakwe, aims to use her art to challenge the conventional norms of beauty that relegate Black men and women to the background. She uses her work to unapologetically spark conversations about skin tone discrimination, colourism, and essentially, towards recognizing that Black is no less beautiful than any other skin color.

She uses a wide mix of media, from acrylic to photography and digital collages to speak her message and do her bit to contribute towards changing the narrative in mainstream beauty. Her ‘Colourism’ collection delves into this. For example, she creates a portrait of two Black women, beautifully made up, but with a kaleidoscope of three to four skin tones on their faces - despite this, or maybe even because of, they are confident and stare directly at you with no apologies. This disparity of light, dark and other colored skin tones permeates the entire collection. And you can see that every single subject in each piece feels beautiful.

The Nigerian artist also uses this theme of beauty and self-worth in her ‘This is Me’ collection. In this, she urges women to be brave, confident, know themselves and what they are capable of, to take a stance, and to be proud.

Some of our favorite pieces from her collections are below.