CAC - John Goto
Tue 18 Mar
|Sewell Centre Gallery
Listed as one of the top 100 living geniuses during his life time (Telegraph, 2007) Goto was a photographic artist who used narrative forms to explore historical and cultural subjects. Discover the significance of his work and how it still inspires creatives today. Special talk by Celia Goto.
Time & Location
18 Mar 2025, 10:30 – 14:30
Sewell Centre Gallery, Kennington Rd, Abingdon, Radley, Abingdon OX14 2HR, UK
About the event
Originally from Stockport and later relocating to Berkshire, Goto pursued painting at St Martin’s School of Art in London. He gained recognition for blending various art forms into a hybrid of deliberate randomness. However, it was his photographic portraits from 1977, published in 2013, depicting British Afro-Caribbean youth in South London, that made a significant impact in the art and fashion industries.
While teaching evening photography classes at the Lewisham youth centre, he developed strong bonds with his mostly black students. Goto acknowledged feeling “a resonance” with his subjects, describing it as “the recognition of a struggle I knew and carried within me.”
The previous year had seen riots at the Notting Hill carnival, and a National Front march had sparked the so-called Battle of Lewisham. Goto remarked that "young black people were being actively criminalised," yet there was "no space for accounts of their cultural life." He addressed this…