The homeless artist of Mayfair

“Life is a performance,” artist Kollier Din-Bangura tells me when I first meet him in his underground studio on Mount Street, an elegant redbrick thoroughfare in Mayfair. Tall and slim, he’s dressed in head to toe maroon, from his paint-stained boiler suit to his pristine trainers. His thin-rimmed glasses magnify the creases around his eyes when he chuckles, which he does often; his laughter bouncing off the white walls where his art hangs. Mostly, these are paintings made on bin bags using brightly coloured acrylic paints, as well as ink drawings on loose sheets of paper.

There is a large vertical sign leaning against the wall. It reads: “Keep The Faith”. Din-Bangura tells me it’s his mantra: “I’m not a follower of religion, but I believe in myself, and I believe in people.” After inviting me to sit on a camping chair, he begins to tell me stories of some of the more glamorous settings he and his art have been in. Somewhat of a London legend, Din-Bangura most recent work sold for thousands, he tells me, and his celebrity admirers include the King, who was so impressed by the 43-year-old artist that he expressed an interest in hanging one of his works at Buckingham Palace. Naomi Campbell invited him to attend her children’s birthday party this year. 

He encourages me to have a look at the adjoining rooms — a kitchenette; a bedroom, complete with maroon bedsheets; and an exhibition space for his work — where I notice a stanchion in front of his bed holding a sign for his latest exhibition, Where I Sleep. Tracey Emin’s My Bed springs to mind. Except Tracey did not sleep in hers while it was being exhibited, unlike Din-Bangura. And the latter’s work is unlikely to be sold at auction for £2.5m. Nor will the chair with a loo seat for a base — quite literally, a toilet seat — currently on show in the exhibition space. His booming laugh echoes around us again as he waits for me to get the joke.

Din-Bangura may be producing art in one of London’s wealthiest areas, but currently he’s homeless. His Mount Street studio is a disused unit underneath a printing shop that he found and occupied when no one seemed to lay claim to it, and his “toilet seat” represents the bathroom he does not have (he has to leave his underground dwelling to use facilities elsewhere). The lack of central heating and ventilation in his bedroom gives him respiratory problems. And his occupation of this unit led him to be physically assaulted weeks after our meeting.