Kione Grandison was born into a family of Jamaican descent in London, England in 1996, studying Fine Art studies at Wimbledon College of Art (2014–17). Grandison's multifaceted practice spans different aspects of identity, reflecting her mixed Jamaican heritage and engages with issues around the Black beauty industry, Jamaican music, and dancehall traditions. She investigates the significance of hair, particularly in African and Caribbean diasporic communities, seeing it as a cultural symbol carrying deep political and historical meanings. While her art encompasses various mediums, from painting to unique hand-painted garments, she favours collage.
Multidisciplinary artist Kione Grandison was born into a family of Jamaican descent in London, England in 1996. From an early age, she used drawing and painting as an outlet for her shyness (Why Now documentary). Her parents backed her inclination towards art – her mother worked as a chief fashion buyer, while her father was a graphic and furniture designer. Grandison studied Fine Art at Wimbledon College of Art (2014–17), when she began investigating the significance of hair, particularly in African and Caribbean diasporic communities, seeing it as a cultural symbol carrying deep political and historical meanings. This exploration became the focus of her BA dissertation. In 2017, Grandison received a Woon Foundation Art Prize.
Grandison's multifaceted approach engages with different aspects of identity, reflecting her mixed Jamaican heritage. While her art encompasses various mediums, from painting to unique hand-painted garments, she favours collage. Grandison feels that collage, given its immediacy, allows her to 'release' her ideas without requiring too much overthinking during the creative process (Boddington in 2020). Rather than beginning with a blank page, she prefers to overlay collages on pre-existing images, initiating a dialogue between the new layer and the image underneath. Grandison's creations explore aspects of the Black beauty industry, Jamaican music, and dancehall traditions, as well as traditional African tools of 'beautification' like the hair comb, her approach seamlessly integrating visual art with ethnographic study.
Informed by her own hair experience, Grandison’s work examines the nuances of Black hair and the unique position in which individuals of mixed heritage often find themselves within a salon setting. By blending imagery of African and European hair techniques, Grandison addresses the Western hair industry’s adoption of Black beauty standards and their reciprocal influence. As a mixed-race individual, her identity is intertwined with both white and black hair cultures. Grandison's distinctive long, Afro-style hair with its ‘frizzy’ texture has persistently played a pivotal role in her identity, ‘whether I liked it or not’, as she has remarked. White hairdressers often struggled with her hair and Black hairdressers would frequently suggest she should relax it. These conflicting viewpoints led Grandison to have a complex relationship with her hair, always feeling its difference from the 'typical' in some way. Grandison noted, ‘for many years, I’d either pull it back tightly or straighten it, but never relaxed it, thanks to the wisdom of my parents who assured me that I would one day value what I possess’ (Infringe). For her collages, Grandison draws upon several sources, incorporating images from hair product packages, Black hair magazines, and iconic photography books, such as Hairstyles by J.D. Okhai Ojeikere, which chronicled the elaborate hairstyles of African women throughout the 1900s. Grandison's collage, Wild (2017), presents a vast jungle tableau, flanked by figures on either side, seemingly showcasing it to viewers. At the centre, a hovering head with long, tree-like strands of hair mirrors the ‘Onigi’ hairstyle, translating to ‘sticks’. This work, inspired by the story of Saartje Baartman and the objectification of Black women in the 1800s, touches on exoticisation and fetishisation. Baartman was a Khoikhoi woman brought to Britain in 1810. Noted for her pronounced figure, she was paraded in Europe as a spectacle and died prematurely at 25 due to illness. Her remains were exhibited in Paris's ‘Musee de l’Homme’ until 1974.
In 2021, Grandison participated in The World Reimagined in London, a nationwide project showcasing over 100 globes in seven UK cities. The initiative sought to highlight the Transatlantic Slave Trade and encourage conversations about racial justice. Grandison's contribution, Let us not Forget, echoed the theme 'Stolen Legacy: The Rebirth of a Nation'. One side of her globe presented a portrait of 'Mama Africa', embodying the shared ancestor from whom all Africans are descended. Grandison portrayed her warmly, decorated with jewels, beads, scarification, and an afro comb in her hair, symbolising Africa's vibrant culture and prosperity before the Transatlantic Slave Trade, celebrating its enduring beauty. Conversely, the globe's other side featured Britannia, often symbolic of Britain's Empire, might and pride, her helmet embellished with cotton, her trident, substituted with sugar cane, and her shield depicting the layout of a slave ship, acknowledging Britain's inhumane past and its economic foundation on the slave trade until the 1800s. In 2019, Grandison participated in The Hair Appointment at Peckham Palms, London, an interactive salon exhibition celebrating Black hairstyling. In 2022, London's Migration Museum, featured her work as part of the Artist Showcase series, highlighting creations from local artists and designers of migrant backgrounds in their window display. In addition to her art, Grandison is a self-taught nail artist. Like hair, nail art is a prevalent mode of self-expression in African and Caribbean diasporas, reflecting Grandison’s fascination with the evolution of adornment traditions amid the forced relocation of Africans. Kione Grandison’s work is not currently represented in UK public collections.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Kione Grandison]
Publications related to [Kione Grandison] in the Ben Uri Library