Pearl De Luna

I am a young Franco-Jamaican artist based in London who first came to painting through music. I have always been heavily into jazz and I find the two art forms inexorably intertwined but ultimately, I needed another channel, besides music, to express my artistic sensibility. When I was first introduced to Basquiat, I saw how he was able to capture the essence of jazz and translate it from just a sonic experience into a visual one. This greatly inspired me.

I am completely self- taught, but have, from an early age been exposed to a wide variety of art through my parents who both work in the arts, my mother, as a Curator and father, a photographer. They introduced me to the endless perspectives and visions of some of the artists that inspire me to explore this medium and see the connections between the different art forms.

My practice deals with the underrepresentation of black figures in paintings but contradict the traditional narrative, putting them against very flamboyant backdrops while still telling the story of the racial struggle and the inequality.

I use many shades of blues, browns and black to show the multitude and complexity of layers and depth to their story, unique and individual to each character. Taking inspirat...