Chris Ofili returns to London, according to the Evening Standard, with a new style provoked by his new home:
Ofili had enjoyed a residency in Trinidad in 2000, and continued to visit the island. In 2005, he moved with his partner to its capital, Port of Spain, and is now raising his two children there.
The paintings resulting from this upheaval are as palpably different as he had hoped for. Ofili has no historical links to the Caribbean – he was born in Manchester after his parents emigrated from Nigeria – and in Trinidad “everything was re-thought and re-presented to me. So the change didn’t feel like such an effort”.
The most dramatic new element in his work is the abundance of nature. “I had some knowledge of nature, but never enough to feel it could affect my work,” he explains. “But in Trinidad, it’s undeniable, it’s more present than human presence.”
He relishes discovering the island, taking a camera with him as he explores to document the constant revelations. He and the painter Peter Doig, a close friend who moved to Trinidad at the same time, go kayaking around the island.
Chris Ofili–The Painter of Paradise (Evening Standard)
