Tafui is a Canadian visual artist and multidisciplinary designer born in Xaymaca / Jamaica whose practice encompasses painting, printmaking, wood carving and textile design. The bold black and white patterns that adorn many of her designs and murals are a form of storytelling through repetition and the arrangement of symbols as inspired by precolonial textile techniques and mark making. Patois (2020) is a detail from Tafui’s hand-painted mural in the Vancouver Art Gallery exhibition Where do we go from here? and is inspired by the Bògòlanfini textile technique of the Bambara people of West Africa.
Tafui’s work can be found in various private and public art collections including those of the Bank of Jamaica, the City of Ottawa and the City of Vancouver. She lives and works on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəyəm (Musqueam), Sḵwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
All proceeds from sales of this special limited run print will be used in support of the Black Youth Design Initiative at the Ontario College of Art & Design University, Toronto, and programming at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
- Special Edition print with white matting and black frame
- Total size with frame and matting: 19 1/8 x 16 1/8 inches
- Print size: 14 x 11 inches
- Printed in Vancouver by Hemlock Printers
- Framed in Vancouver by Harrison Art Services