The head honcho behind BeauBeaus Art Club talks reconnecting with your inner child, vulnerability and the importance of finding your people.
Photography by Panashe-Gwyneth Mushandu
Words by Kemi Iruwa
Taken from Issue 04 of The Basement. Get your copy here.
It’s a dreary summer afternoon in Islington. Amy Winehouse blasts through the speaker as fine artist Teoni Hinds shows me around her kaleidoscopic studio. “I think vulnerability is so powerful – it makes you more of a person, rather than a coward,” she says, sporting a green oversized Motherlan tracksuit, as she flickers through her paintings.
A dreamer who self-describes as having her head “in the clouds”, capturing reality and sensitivity is at the core of Teoni’s practice. Inspired by artists like Tracey Emin, Lucian Freud, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Teoni primarily employs impressionist and expressionist techniques as vehicles for presenting vulnerability. “Everyone always asks me to do abstract art but I need to do things that feel real. When I go to do my art, it’s like I’m grounding myself.”
It’s an approach that’s paid off; fast. In just two years Teoni has become one of London’s most exciting talents. Renowned not just for her internet breaking oil portrait canvas, including the Clint 419 commissioned “a mother & her son” painting, but for spearheading BeauBeaus Art Club, a community-driven space which is facilitating artistic development for others.
Born and raised in North-West London to parents of Jamaican heritage, Teoni has made art ever since she can remember – but that didn’t mean her journey into the art world was set in stone. “There wasn’t really a moment where I was like, ‘I’m gonna pursue art’ because growing up to be an artist back then was just not a thing,” she says, clarifying that: “I really did love art, but I never gave it my all because I thought ‘Who the hell is an artist’?”
That all changed during the 24-year-old’s time studying at Middlesex University. “It felt like I was in a gallery everyday. It was the best environment for me to grow at the time.” It appears as though Teoni has replicated this in her own personal workspace. Her studio’s floor is adorned with colourful paint drops and spray paint, while a graffitied sofa sits proudly in the corner. In another, her highly sought recreation of a photograph of Slawn and his son Beau by Fin Flint is perched against the wall.
Since finishing university with a final project paying homage to her living room (which involved painting her university’s walls a luminous orange), Teoni has spearheaded a diverse range of artistic projects. In the last year alone she’s worked with Dr. Martens and Motherlan, spoke at the Tate Modern and appeared on Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the Year.
Throughout these myriad projects and opportunities, her creative process has remained uniquely her own. “It’s usually an image I’ve been sitting on for at least a year or it’s an image that I’ve grown up with that’s been ingrained in my head,” she says on choosing her subject. But once an image has been chosen, starting a painting comes with ease – a meditative state she can fall into like a daydream, and like the best daydreams who knows when it may begin and end. “I really want to just flesh [the image] out and understand how it made me feel, and then I’ll leave it alone for anywhere from weeks to months – years even.”
Driven by a desire to convey love or the lack of it (“Love is the one emotion that I strive for in everything. I always say, love and death are the only two things that are guaranteed in this life,” she explains), her latest project has seen Teoni step away from the paintbrush and into IRL spaces – and for good reason.
2024 has seen creatives from all walks of life looking to have their hunger for a nurturing and supportive community satiated. Despite residing in one of Europe’s largest cultural hubs, loneliness in young people is on the rise, but individuals like Teoni are leading a movement to bring people together and platform emerging creatives. Especially as she herself has benefited greatly from being part of a healthy art scene,
Enter: BeauBeaus Art Club, which takes place every Wednesday evening at BeauBeaus Cafe in the heart of East London. “Art Club started last July with my best friend, Slawn.” Teoni met Slawn in 2022 when she got a job as his studio assistant after her final year of university. Through this creative pairing, Slawn encouraged Teoni to hone her craft and pave the road towards her destiny as an independent artist in her own right. “I entered a space where people actually saw my talent and worth – and pushed for me to do better for myself,” she reflects.
Akin to a love letter to herself, Art Club offers the opportunity to explore expression in a way that hasn’t always been easy. “Young adults don’t have money, especially artists and creators. We don’t have resources to go to school or buy materials or even know how to be in a space of like-minded creators. With BeauBeaus Art Club we just wanted to create a safe space, literally, for artists,” Teoni says.
Art Club has no strict rules, age requirements or fees. The only expectation is that attendees come ready to be their true selves, unaffected by what others may think. “I say ‘artists’ very loosely because you could be a lawyer that likes to draw on the side. That’s what Art Club’s about – reconnecting with your inner child that loves to draw, paint, make stuff out of clay or create performance art.”
While aspiring to have her work exhibited in the hallowed halls of Tate Modern and on the iconic walls of Saatchi Gallery, Teoni is steadfast in her passion for uplifting younger artists. “I really want to do BeauBeaus Art Club exhibitions for everyone else to showcase their work,” Her dedication to breaking free of generational gatekeeping in the industry and refusing to pull the ladder of success behind her is an unmissable brushstroke which paints a comprehensive portrait of Teoni’s mission and values. Independently, Teoni is in the studio working towards releasing a body of work and doing a solo show. As her journey continues to unfold, her introspection for her past, present and future sets the tone for what’s ahead.“I would tell my younger self, ‘Do the weird things that you always wanted to do. Be that weirdo and really live it.’ Because now, I’m getting paid to be a weirdo.”
