ABSTRACT
Fani-Kayode moved to England from Nigeria with his family in 1966, and then to the USA in 1976. He studied in Georgetown University, Washington DC, and the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, graduating in 1983. Moving back to England that same year, Fani-Kayode became a pivotal figure in the history of British black visual art (see v isual and plast ic arts), being a founding member and chairperson of Autograph: the A s s o c i a t i o n o f Black Photographers when it formed in 1987. Making work that has often been superficially linked with the work of Robert Mapplethorpe, his photographs staged scenarios using a sexualised black male body, creating a new language of sexual difference, sexuality and homosexual desire, much like the work of Isaac Jul ien or Lyle Ashton Harris. His works, such as Milk Drinker of 1983, use simple means to generate a complex plethora of allusions. His work is also often inflected with an African tribal tradition and spirituality, referencing his Yoruba origins, such as his Bronze Head of 1987, or his last series of photographs produced in collaboration with Alex Hirst.
