Alberta Whittle

Alberta Whittle (b.1980, Bridgetown, Barbados) is a Barbadian-Scottish artist who works across media: film, sculpture, print, installation and performance. She lives and works in Glasgow.[1] She was the winner of the Margaret Tait Award in 2018,[2] winner of the Frieze Artist Award in 2020,[3] received a Turner Prize bursary, also in 2020,[4] and will represent Scotland at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2022.[5]

Life and education

Whittle was born and grew up in Barbados, moving to Birmingham as a teenager, and later to Scotland to study.[6] She gained an MFA from Glasgow School of Art in 2011 and she is undertaking a PhD at Edinburgh College of Art.[1] She is a Research Associate at The University of Johannesburg.[7]

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.[1] Her work is also concerned with environmental issues such as the climate crisis.[6]

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.'[6]

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions
  • Alberta Whittle: Business as Usual, Tyburn Gallery, London (31 May - 27 June 2019)[8]
  • Alberta Whittle: How Flexible Can We Make the Mouth, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee (14 September - 24 November 2019)[1]

Group exhibitions
  • WHERE WE'RE AT: Other voices on gender, BOZAR, Brussels (18 June - 31 August 2014)[9]
  • Johannesburg Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, Venice (9 May - 22 November 2015)[10]
  • Embodied Spaces, FRAMER FRAMED, Amsterdam (18 June - 26 July 2015)[11]
  • Inner City, GoMA, Glasgow (16 February - 11 November 2018)[12]
  • there’s something in the conversation that is more interesting than the finality of (a title), The Showroom, London (28 March - 5 May 2018)[13]
  • Stalking The Image: Margaret Tait and Her Legacy, GoMA, Glasgow (8 November 2018 - 5 May 2019)[14]
  • Alberta Whittle and Emilio Bianchic, Useless, Pig Rock Bothy, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (13 - 21 April 2019)[15]
  • 13th Havana Biennale, Cuba (12 April - 12 May 2019)[16]
  • Alberta Whittle and Hardeep Pandhal, Transparency, Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh (18 October 2019 - 5 January 2020)[17][18]
  • Sonia Boyce: In the Castle of my Skin, Eastside Projects, Birmingham (25 January - 11 April 2020, original dates, disrupted due to Covid-19 pandemic)[19]
  • Here Be Dragons, Copperfield, London (22 September - 31 October 2020)[20]

Collections

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

Awards

References
  1. "Alberta Whittle". Dundee Contemporary Arts. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  2. "Margaret Tait Award & Residency". LUX Scotland. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  3. "Alberta Whittle wins Frieze Artist Award 2020 | Frieze". www.frieze.com. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  4. "Tate Britain announces recipients of £10,000 Turner bursaries". the Guardian. 2020-07-02. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  5. "Alberta Whittle to represent Scotland at 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, 2022". Scotland + Venice. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  6. McNay, Anna. "Alberta Whittle – interview: 'No one can find Barbados on a map, whereas everyone can find the UK. That level of inattention galvanises so much of my work '". www.studiointernational.com. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  7. "Alberta Whittle". Forma. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  8. "Alberta Whittle: Business as Usual". Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  9. "WHERE WE'RE AT!". BOZAR. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  10. Editor, News (2015-04-28). "The Johannesburg Pavilion is a program of contemporary African film and live performance that will travel to Venice during the first two weeks of the 56th Venice Biennale". Biennial Foundation. Retrieved 2021-02-02.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  11. "Exhibition: Embodied Spaces". Framer Framed. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  12. "Gallery Of Modern Art (GoMA) GlasgowINNER CITY // GALLERY 3 // 16 February – 11 November 2018". Gallery Of Modern Art (GoMA) Glasgow. 2018-02-27. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  13. "The Showroom | there's something in the conversation that is more interesting than the finality of (a title)". www.theshowroom.org. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  14. "New exhibition at Glasgow's GoMA celebrates life and work of visionary Scots filmmaker Margaret Tait". Glasgow Life. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  15. "Alberta Whittle and Emilio Bianchic". MAP Magazine. 2019-04-26. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  16. ivetteromero (2019-03-24). "13th Havana Biennial". Repeating Islands. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  17. "Art reviews: The Phillip A Bruno Collection | Street Level Open 2009 | Alberta Whittle & Hardeep Pandhal". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  18. "Edinburgh Printmakers". Edinburgh Printmakers. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  19. "Sonia Boyce: In the Castle of My Skin". Eastside Projects. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  20. "Here Be Dragons". C Ø P P E R F I E L D. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  21. "Alberta Whittle". C Ø P P E R F I E L D. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  22. "Whittle, Alberta | Arts Council Collection". www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  23. "Alberta Whittle". Studio Pavilion. 2019-05-09. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  24. Foundation, Henry Moore. "Henry Moore Foundation awards £60,000 in rapid-response to artists across the UK amid the Covid-19 pandemic". Henry Moore Foundation. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
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