Julianknxx

Julianknxx was in residence at LUMA Arles from mid April to June 2025.

The polyphonic nature of Julianknxx’s work is indicative of his expansive practice, which is rooted in poetry but extends into performance, film, music and sculpture. Born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Julianknxx draws on his personal experiences to broaden perspectives on the history and culture of Africa and its diasporas. Inspired by oral history traditions and working with a distinctive aesthetic approach, his films invite us to consider how we construct both local and global narratives, while reflecting on how it feels to exist in liminal spaces.

His work has been shown at galleries and museums worldwide, with his latest institutional showcase In Search of…Incredible on view at LUMA Arles until January 2027. Added solo presentations include Shifting / Spirit / Time, BURO Stedelijk, Amsterdam (2025), and St Mary le Strand, London (2025); Chorus In Rememory of Flight, Barbican Curve, London (2023), De Singel, Antwerp (2024), Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM), Lisbon (2025), and The Model, Sligo (2025).

Additional group shows include: The Bienal de São Paulo (2025), A World in Common, Tate Modern, London (2023), Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam (2024), C/O Berlin (2025), the Sharjah Biennial 16, Sharjah (2025); Resonance: Black Visual Art & Sonic Chronicles, M.Bassy, Hamburg (2025); Keeping Time, Gallery 1957, Accra (2024); Rites of Passage, Gagosian, London (2023); and To Be Held, Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate (2023). Previous participations include Whitechapel Gallery Open, London (2022); Nocturnal Creatures, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2021); Lux, 180 The Strand, London (2021); The View from There, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2021); and more.

Performances include Listening Quantum, St Mary le Strand (2025); Attuned in the Bantutronic with John Akomfrah, TBA21, Madrid (2025); Attuned in the Bantutronic with Tina Campt, 180 Studios, London (2024); Chorus in Flight, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (2024), BURO Stedelijk, Amsterdam (2024), and St James’s Church, London (2023); Art Basel Conversations: Sonic Performance, Basel (2023); and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (2023).