Julianknxx

Julianknxx’s interdisciplinary practice merges his poetry with performance, film, music and installation. In casting his practice as a ‘living archive’ or a ‘history from below’, Julianknxx draws on West African oral traditions to reframe how local and global histories and identities are constructed. His body of work unravels linear Western historical and socio-political narratives, blending lived testimony with ageless forms of cultural expression to convey the feeling of existing within liminal spaces.

Julianknxx (b. 1987, Sierra Leone) lives and works in London. Recent solo exhibitions include Shifting / Spirit / Time, BURO Stedelijk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2025); Chorus In Rememory of Flight, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain (2025); The Model, Sligo, Ireland (2025); Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal (2025); DeSingel, Antwerp, Belgium (2024); Barbican, London, UK (2023); and In Praise of Still Boys, 180 The Strand, London, UK (2021). Recent group exhibitions include Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2025); Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, UAE (2025); A World in Common, C/O Berlin, Germany (2025); Reverb, 180 The Strand, London, UK (2024); Poetic Resolution, LUX, Seoul, South Korea (2023); A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography, Tate, London, UK (2023), Rites of Passage, Gagosian, London, UK (2023), Air, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, US (2022),The London Open, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2022); The View From There, Sadie Coles HQ, London, UK (2021); and Contra La Raza, Matadero, Madrid, Spain (2021). Selected performances include St Mary le Strand, London, UK (forthcoming);  The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, US (2024);  BURO Stedelijk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2024);  St James’s Church, London, UK (2023);  Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal (2023);  De Singel, Antwerp, Belgium (2023); Brixton House, London, UK (2022);  Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2021), OT301, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2020), Southbank Centre, London, UK (2019, 2018), Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK (2019) and BBC Radio 5. Julianknxx’s work is in the Arts Council Collection, London, UK.