The inaugural £30,000 Dasha Shenkman Focus Fund enables the acquisition of a painting, preparatory drawing and lightbox work, bringing a distinctive new voice in contemporary art to Abbot Hall’s permanent collection in Cumbria.
Abbot Hall in Kendal, Cumbria, has announced the acquisition of three works by London-based artist Okiki Akinfe (b.1999), selected from the Focus section of Frieze London 2026. Comprising a painting, preparatory drawing and lightbox work, the acquisition has been made possible through the inaugural £30,000 Dasha Shenkman Focus Fund, launched by the Contemporary Art Society (CAS) in partnership with Frieze.
Okiki Akinfe. Courtesy the artist.
At the centre of the acquisition is Fame is a Gun (2026), a self-portrait that brings together Akinfe’s interest in art history, figurative representation and the expressive possibilities of paint.
Akinfe’s distinctive painterly approach draws on the traditions of underpainting, leaving sections of the canvas exposed and retaining the faint grids and measurements used to construct an image. Rather than concealing the labour behind a finished surface, she foregrounds painting as a process of looking, thinking and making, creating a tension between the finished and unfinished that invites viewers to pause and search for meaning.
Okiki Akinfe, Fame Is A Gun, 2026, oil on linen, 110 x 200 cm. Courtesy the artist. Photography by Corey Bartle-Sanderson.
In Fame is a Gun, the artist depicts herself sitting backwards on a chair, one arm stretched out in front of her, casting a shadow across her face, while her hand forms the shape of a gun. The gesture introduces an ambiguity between playfulness, threat and self-fashioning, suggesting the risks involved in being seen and recognised. The title evokes fame as a form of power, but also as something potentially violent: a force that can be wielded, performed or turned against oneself.
Across her practice, Akinfe draws on art history, popular culture and personal experience to explore Black identity, Britishness and the stereotypes through which people are perceived. Her paintings create space for forms of self-representation that resist easy categorisation, balancing intimate autobiography with broader questions of visibility, belonging and who gets to occupy the picture.
The acquisition introduces a distinctive contemporary perspective to Abbot Hall’s collection, which has particular strengths in portraiture and figurative painting. From the eighteenth-century portraits of George Romney to works by Lucian Freud, Stanley Spencer and contemporary artist Charmaine Watkiss, the collection offers a rich context in which to encounter Akinfe’s work. Her engagement with art history, representation and the physical processes of painting opens up new conversations between historic and contemporary artistic practice.
Dasha Shenkman, Okiki Akinfe, Diane Reid, and Niall Hodson at Ginny on Frederick. Courtesy of the Contemporary Art Society. Photography by Joe Short.
Diane Reid, Chair of Trustees, Lakeland Arts, said:
“Lakeland Arts is delighted to be adding the work of Okiki Akinfe to the permanent collection at Abbot Hall art gallery in Kendal. Okiki’s work stood out in this year’s Frieze Focus section as ambitious, energetic, and grounded in the technical mastery of paint. Acquiring a significant painting, a lightbox, and a drawing has meant we are able to capture something of the breadth of Okiki Akinfe’s practice and development at a pivotal stage in her career.
“We are grateful to the Contemporary Art Society and Dasha Shenkman for this special opportunity to acquire exciting new artworks for our collection, and look forward to bringing them onto display at Abbot Hall soon.”
Dasha Shenkman, arts patron and philanthropist, said:
“I’m absolutely thrilled with the outcome of this first year’s award. Okiki Akinfe is a hugely talented young artist and I’m delighted that Abbot Hall Gallery has had the vision and courage to make such a bold choice. It is the perfect example of how supporting emerging talent can benefit everyone involved. For me, it’s a real win-win. An artist gains recognition and opportunity, while the gallery brings exciting new work into its collection for the benefit of its audiences.”
Abbot Hall is the first UK public institution to benefit from the Dasha Shenkman Focus Fund, a new initiative supporting the acquisition of work by emerging artists exhibiting in Frieze London’s Focus section. Established by long-standing Contemporary Art Society supporter Dasha Shenkman, the fund aims to champion artists at a formative stage in their careers, providing an opportunity for their work to enter a UK public collection and reach new audiences.
The fund also marks the tenth anniversary of the Contemporary Art Society’s partnership with Frieze, which has supported significant contemporary acquisitions for museums and galleries across the UK. Building on the established CAS Collections Fund at Frieze, the new initiative places particular emphasis on emerging talent and the role public collections can play in supporting artists at a pivotal moment in their development.
Set within a Grade I listed Georgian villa on the banks of the River Kent, Abbot Hall is part of Lakeland Arts, a registered charity and Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation. Over more than sixty years, the gallery has developed one of the North of England’s most significant public art collections, spanning historic, modern and contemporary work. Its holdings include watercolours by J.M.W. Turner and John Ruskin, a comprehensive collection of George Romney portraiture, and works by Barbara Hepworth, Bridget Riley and other major figures in British art.
Alongside its permanent collection, Abbot Hall presents an ambitious temporary exhibition programme, with a particular interest in ecology, landscape and the relationship between art and place. The acquisition of Akinfe’s work continues the gallery’s commitment to bringing contemporary artistic perspectives into dialogue with its historic collections, ensuring that important new voices can be encountered by audiences in Cumbria and across the North of England.
The three works will join the Lakeland Arts permanent collection, with plans to display them at Abbot Hall in due course.
