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This portfolio was published in 2007 to support the foundation of Rivington Place, a public gallery and community space in Shoreditch, London. Rivington Place describes itself as the UK’s "first permanent public space dedicated to diversity in the visual arts" and is housed in an award-winning building designed by David Adjaye, a British architect of Ghanaian descent. As well as hosting regular exhibitions, film screenings, talks, and performances, it is the home of the Association of Black Photographers (Autograph ABP), the International Institute of Visual Arts (Iniva), and the Stuart Hall Library. The artists selected to contribute to the portfolio were chosen for their international reputations and commitment to creating work dealing explicitly with contemporary cultural issues.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016

Chris Ofili is one of Britain’s most celebrated contemporary artists. His colorful and controversial paintings integrate unusual material (including glitter, magazine cutouts, and elephant dung) and wide-ranging allusions, from religious symbolism to Blaxploitation imagery. Such unexpected juxtapositions speak to Ofili’s claim that his "painting comes out of hip-hop culture. That means that neither in the creating nor in the viewing of things do hierarchical criteria play a role. Everything is treated the same." After the Dance relates to a series of blue paintings Ofili made in the early 2000s that speak back to German expressionism and Picasso’s "blue period," as well as to Ofili’s love of music. The dancing figures in this related print are derived from a photograph taken in the 1960s by Malick Sidibé, a Malian artist who died in April 2016. The landscape in which they dance is that of Trinidad, where Ofili has lived since 2005.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016