Alberta Whittle (born 1980,

Bridgetown Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the capital and largest city of Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Island ...

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

) is a Barbadian-Scottish multidisciplinary artist who works across media: film, sculpture, print, installation and performance. She lives and works in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. She was the winner of the

Margaret Tait Award The Margaret Tait Award is a moving image prize for artists living and working in Scotland. It is named after the Orcadian filmmaker and writer Margaret Tait (1918–99). Recipients of the award have included Alberta Whittle, Charlotte Prodger ...

in 2018, winner of the Frieze Artist Award in 2020, received a

Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...

bursary, also in 2020, and represented Scotland at the 59th International Art Exhibition –

La Biennale di Venezia The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

in 2022.

Life and education

Whittle was born and grew up in Barbados, moving to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

as a teenager, and later to Scotland to study. She gained an MFA from

Glasgow School of Art The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; gd, Sgoil-ealain Ghlaschu) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, and ...

in 2011 and she is undertaking a PhD at

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

. She is a research associate at th
Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre
situated at the

University of Johannesburg The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is a public university located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The University of Johannesburg came into existence on 1 January 2005 as the result of a merger between the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), the Te ...

Work

Alberta Whittle's work is concerned with questioning how history and society are constructed in the Western world. Her practice takes on the legacies of colonialism and slavery, and reflects upon black oppression and the way in which the racialised black body can carry markers of such oppression that may play out in an individual's mental or physical health. Her work is also concerned with environmental issues such as the climate crisis. Whittle talks about her move to the UK from the Caribbean as something that, for her, drew attention to the inequalities in the way in which history is captured and told by different nations. She says: 'I was really quite shocked, moving to the UK, going to school in Birmingham, and living and studying in Scotland, by how there was an acute absence of conversation or acknowledgment in terms of these intricate and uneasy relationships between Europe and the Americas, or Asia, or Africa. ..The privilege in avoiding these histories is something I found shocking and, I guess, hurtful. ..That level of inattention definitely galvanises so much of my work.'

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

*''Alberta Whittle: Business as Usual'', Tyburn Gallery, London (31 May - 27 June 2019) *''Alberta Whittle:'' ''How Flexible Can We Make the Mouth'',

Dundee Contemporary Arts Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) is an art centre in Dundee, Scotland, with two contemporary art galleries, a two-screen cinema, a print studio, a learning and public engagement programme, a shop and a café bar. The director of DCA is Beth Bate ...

, Dundee (14 September - 24 November 2019) *''Alberta Whittle: RESET'',

Jupiter Artland Jupiter Artland is a contemporary sculpture park and art gallery outside the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. Jupiter Artland Foundation is a registered charity that is supported by classes, workshops, events, ticket sales, and donations. It is open ...

, Scotland, (31 July - 31 October 2021) *''Alberta Whittle: Deep Dive (Pause) Uncoiling Memory,'' Scotland in Venice, Docks Cantieri Cucchini at the 59th

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

, Venice (23 April – 27 November 2022)

Group exhibitions

* ''WHERE WE'RE AT: Other voices on gender,''

BOZAR The Centre for Fine Arts (french: Palais des Beaux-Arts, nl, Paleis voor Schone Kunsten) is a multi-purpose cultural venue in Brussels, Belgium. It is often referred to as BOZAR (a homophone of ''Beaux-arts'') in French or PSK in Dutch. The b ...

, Brussels (18 June - 31 August 2014), *Johannesburg Pavilion at the 56th

, Venice (9 May - 22 November 2015) *''Embodied Spaces,'' FRAMER FRAMED, Amsterdam (18 June - 26 July 2015) *''Inner City'',

GoMA Goma is the capital of North Kivu province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is located on the northern shore of Lake Kivu, next to the Rwandan city of Gisenyi. The lake and the two cities are in the Albertine Rift, the weste ...

, Glasgow (16 February - 11 November 2018) *''there's something in the conversation that is more interesting than the finality of (a title)'',

The Showroom The Showroom is a not-for-profit art gallery in Marylebone, London, which displays site-specific works by emerging artists. The gallery presents four shows each year, a schedule that allows artists the time to develop and realise their work on sit ...

, London (28 March - 5 May 2018) *''Stalking The Image: Margaret Tait and Her Legacy'',

, Glasgow (8 November 2018 - 5 May 2019) *Alberta Whittle and Emilio Bianchic, ''Useless'', Pig Rock Bothy,

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is part of the National Galleries of Scotland, which are based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The National Gallery of Modern Art houses the collection of modern and contemporary art dating from about 1900 to th ...

, Edinburgh (13 - 21 April 2019) * 13th

Havana Biennale The Bienal de La Habana was founded in 1984. It takes place in Havana (Cuba) every two years. It principally aims at promoting the developing world in contemporary art circles, giving priority to Latin American and Caribbean artists, although art ...

, Cuba (12 April - 12 May 2019) *Alberta Whittle and Hardeep Pandhal, ''Transparency'', Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh (18 October 2019 - 5 January 2020) *''Sonia Boyce: In the Castle of my Skin'',

Eastside Projects Eastside Projects is an artist-run space in the Digbeth area of Birmingham, England. It is a free public space that is imagined and organised by artists, and includes art gallery, galleries and art studio, studios. It commissions and presents e ...

, Birmingham (25 January - 11 April 2020, original dates, disrupted due to

Covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

) *''Here Be Dragons'', Copperfield, London (22 September - 31 October 2020) *''between a whisper and a cry,''

Open Eye Gallery Open Eye Gallery is a photography gallery and archive in Liverpool, UK that was established in 1977. It is housed in a purpose-built building on the waterfront at Mann Island, its fourth location. Open Eye Gallery comprises an exhibition space ...

for

Liverpool Biennial Liverpool Biennial is the largest international contemporary art festival in the United Kingdom. Every two years, the city of Liverpool hosts an extensive range of artworks, projects, and a programme of events. The biennial commissions leading ...

11th Edition (20 March - 27 June 2021, original dates disrupted due to

) *''Life Support: Forms of Care in Art and Activism,''

Glasgow Women's Library Glasgow Women's Library is a public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who ar ...

, (14 August - 16 October 2021)

Collections

Alberta Whittle's work is part of the following collections: * The

National Galleries of Scotland National Galleries of Scotland ( gd, Gailearaidhean Nàiseanta na h-Alba) is the executive non-departmental public body that controls the three national galleries of Scotland and two partner galleries, forming one of the National Collections o ...

collections *

Glasgow Museums Glasgow Museums is the group of museums and galleries owned by the City of Glasgow, Scotland. They hold about 1.6 million objects including over 60,000 art works, over 200,000 items in the human history collections, over 21,000 items relating to ...

Collections * The UK Arts Council Collection *

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

The Contemporary Art Research Collection ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

Awards

, 2018 with the video work ''between a whisper and a cry'' * Frieze Artist Award, 2020 *

bursary, 2020 *

Henry Moore Foundation The Henry Moore Foundation is a registered charity in England, established for education and promotion of the fine arts — in particular, to advance understanding of the works of Henry Moore. The charity was set up with a gift from the arti ...

Artist Award, 2020

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whittle, Alberta 1980 births Living people Artists from Glasgow Black British artists Black British culture