Lyles & King is pleased to present Time Bends for the Tender, a solo exhibition of Akea Brionne's work on view through February 21, 2026. Drawing inspiration from bell hooks’ Sisters of the Yam, this series explores the interior landscape of black women cultivated in order to survive the psychic, social, and geographic pressures placed upon them. The works explore how identity is shaped—softened, hardened, fragmented—and how the body learns to perform or mask itself within neurotypical, racialized, and gendered environments. The figures are situated inside vividly colored domestic spaces: bedrooms, plants, bedsheets, and architectural planes of pinks, greens, yellows, and blues. The interiors are not merely backdrops; they are emotional geographies, worlds built from memory, longing, and quiet defense.