OCHI is pleased to present Come When Mi Call Yu, an exhibition of new paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Lenworth McIntosh. The exhibition marks McIntosh’s first solo show with OCHI, following his 2025 solo presentation at Frieze Los Angeles. Come When Mi Call Yu will be on view at OCHI, located at 605 N. Western Avenue in Los Angeles, CA from September 12 through October 10, 2026. A public reception will be held at the gallery on Saturday, September 12 from 6-8pm.
Come When Mi Call Yu imagines a Black commune living in a verdant rural valley, anticipating a natural phenomenon that takes on the form of a storm. Drawing on his Jamaican heritage and the visual language of animation, McIntosh renders an otherworldly atmosphere where the spiritual and living planes fuse into a single, collaborative ecosystem. He positions ancestral knowledge as an omnipresent force in everyday life and the Black diaspora as a source of collective energy.
The scenes move between memory and invention as McIntosh draws on the Caribbean Nine Nights wake tradition, where loved ones come together over shared food, music, and stories to celebrate the life of the departed and guide their spirit to the ancestral realm on the ninth night after their passing. Guided by his childhood memories of life in Jamaica, he approaches composition anthropologically, constructing scenes from shifting, cinematic vantage points.
While rooted in McIntosh’s Jamaican heritage and resonant across the diaspora, Come When Mi Call Yu ultimately gestures toward a broader human truth about the enduring strength of community and ancestral connection.
