Lubaina Himid in “Between Worlds”

Version without descriptive audio available here.

Painted in bright colors and adorned with lush fabrics, the often forgotten and marginalized figures in artist Lubaina Himid’s Street Sellers (2024) stand proudly with their assorted wares as life-sized portraits hung at New York’s Greene Naftali Gallery. After decades of pioneering work in painting and sculpture alongside curating groundbreaking exhibitions for Black women artists, recent years have brought long-deserved recognition for Himid, whose career challenges dominant histories of art and society through uniquely democratizing approaches. This documentary film dives deep into the artist’s process as she sifts through used furniture at flea markets to find the raw material for her paintings, listens to football matches while working in her studio, and pushes to find new ways to invite viewers to participate in the vital and provocative conversations at the heart of her work. “At the heart of everything,” Himid says, “I am trying to bypass gatekeepers of history and gatekeepers of contemporary museums, and say, ‘let’s have a conversation in this space about your life, my life, our histories, and where we belong.’”

This film was directed by Bryan Chang and Sana A. Malik, produced by Zeshawn Ali and Bryan Chang, edited by Zara Serabian-Arthur, and photographed by Bryan Chang.