ALBERTA WHITTLE
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Bridgetown, Barbados, 1980.
Lives and works in Glasgow, UK.
Education:
PhD candidate, Edinburgh College of Art
MFA, Glasgow School of Art, 2011
BA, Edinburgh College of Art, 2002
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2024
“…Moving Beyond the Time of Salt,” Temporary Gallery, Cologne, Germany, June 21 – December 15, 2024
“Under the skin of the ocean, the things urges us up wild,” Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute, UK, June 1 – August 25, 2024
“Learning a new punctuation for hope in times of disaster,” Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA, March 16 – May 18, 2024
“Dominique White and Alberta Whittle: Sargasso Sea,” curated by Daniella Rose King, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, February 10 – June 2, 2024 [two-person exhibition]
2023
“Even in the most beautiful place in the world, our breath can falter,” The Modern Institute, Glasgow, UK, October 6 – November 11, 2023
“Alberta Whittle: between a whisper and a cry,” Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, June 10 – September 10, 2023
“create dangerously,” Modern One, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK, April 1, 2023 – January 7, 2024
“Dipping below a waxing moon, the dance claims us for release,” Holburne Museum, Bath, UK, January 27 – May 8, 2023
2022
“Respectability won’t save you: a Caribbean haunting," curated by Arianna Nourse, Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York, NY, May 18 – June 25, 2022
"deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory," Scotland + Venice, 59th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, April 23 – November 22, 2022
2021
“Right of Admission Retrospective,” University of Johannesburg Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa, August 12 – 24, 2021 [two-person exhibition]
“RESET,” Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh, Wilkieston, Scotland, UK, July 31 – October 31, 2021
“business as usual: hostile environment (A REMIX),” Glasgow Sculpture Studios, Glasgow, UK, June 11 – 27, 2021
2020
“No Mudder Country Here,” Grand Union, Birmingham, UK, January 17 – August 30, 2020
2019
“How flexible we can make the mouth,” Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, UK, September 14 – November 24, 2019
“Business as Usual,” Tyburn Gallery, London, UK, May 31 – June 27, 2019
“Useless,” Pig Rock Bothy, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK, April 13 – 21, 2019 [two-person exhibition]
2016
“The Polity of Φ,” Glasgow Project Room and Intermedia, CCA, Glasgow, UK, March 5 – 12, 2016 [two-person exhibition]
2015
“The Cradle,” Goethe On Main, Johannesburg, South Africa, October 1 – 25, 2015 [two-person exhibition]
2014
“Right of Admission,” ROOM Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa, October 3 – 11, 2014 [two-person exhibition]
2010
“badmanabadman,” Bridgetown Gallery, Bridgetown, Barbados, March 21 – April 3, 2010
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2024
“Sunlight on the Sea Floor,” Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 4, 2024 – March 9, 2025
“Eroding Territory,” curated by Cecilia González Godino, Patel Brown, Toronto, Canada, March 28 – May 11, 2024
“Soulscapes,” curated by Lisa Anderson, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, UK, February 14 – June 2, 2024
2023
“Pictures of Us,” Gathering, London, UK, December 1, 2023 – January 20, 2024
“Crafted Selves: The Unfinished Conversation,” The Byre Theatre, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland, UK, October 14, 2023 – February 24, 2024; traveled to Kirkcaldy Galleries, Fife, UK, March 23 – May 12, 2024; Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries, UK, May 18 – August 3, 2024
“Frieze Film x ICA Artists’ Film,” ICA, London, UK, October 10 – 15, 2023
“Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance,” The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK, September 8, 2023 – January 7, 2024
“El Dorado: Myths of Gold,” Americas Society, New York, NY, September 6, 2023 – May 18, 2024
“Rupture, Rapture: Womxn in Collage,” 16 Nicholson Street, Glasgow, UK, August 25 – September 23, 2023
“Scottish Women Artists: 250 Years of Challenging Perception,” Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, UK, July 28, 2023 – January 6, 2024
“Black Venus,” Somerset House, London, UK, July 20 – September 24, 2023
“Exhibition Tributaries,” The Line, The House Mill, London, UK, July 15 – October 8, 2023
“Tales for a Stranger,” Maruani Mercier, Brussels, Belgium, May 27 – July 1, 2023
“Her Blood Spoke: Joscelyn Gardner, Kara Springer & Alberta Whittle,” Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, April 15 – October 29, 2023
“Soft and weak like water,” 14th Gwanju Biennale, Gwanju, South Korea, April 7 – July 9, 2023
“Black Venus,” The Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA, April 5 – August 20, 2023
“Women to Watch UK: New Worlds at Christie’s,” Christie’s, London, UK, February 4 – 10, 2023
2022
“Twilight Land,” Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, October 29, 2022 – April 9, 223
“Moving Bodies, Moving Images,” Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK, October 12, 2022 – January 8, 2023
“ROCK MY SOUL II,” curated by Sir Isaac Julien, Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, Sweden, September 28 – November 27, 2022
“Black Melancholia,” Hessel Museum of Art/Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS), Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, June 25 – October 16, 2022
“Devenir isla,” La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain, May 27 – September 18, 2022
“Scottish Women Artists Transforming Tradition,” Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, UK, April 9 – September 4, 2022
“Revisiting the work of Black Artists in Scotland through New Collecting,” Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, UK, March 12 – July 3, 2022
2021
“Sex Ecologies,” Kunsthall Trondheim, Trondheim, Norway, December 9, 2021 – March 6, 2022
“Life between islands: Caribbean British Art 1950s – Now,” Tate Britain, London, UK, December 1, 2021 – April 3, 2022
“New Arrivals,” Modern One, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK, November 27, 2021 – February 12, 2023
“We Are History,” Somerset House, London, UK, October 16, 2021 – February 6, 2022
“The Ghost Ship and the Sea Change,” Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Gothenburg, Sweden, September 4 – November 21, 2021
“Fragments of Epic Memory,” Art Gallery of Ontario, Ontario, Canada, September 1, 2021 - February 21, 2022; traveled to Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN, January 24 – July 9, 2023; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, OR, October 6, 2023 – January 7, 2024; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH, September 2024 – January 2025
“Life Support: Forms of Care in Art and Activism,” Glasgow Women’s Library, Glasgow
“British Art 9,” Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen, UK, July 10 – October 10, 2021; traveled to Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Wolverhampton School of Art, Wolverhampton, UK, January 22 – April 10, 2022; KARST, MIRROR, Arts University Plymouth, The Box, and The Levinsky Gallery, University of Plymouth, UK, October 8 – December 23, 2022
“Art Night London,” Centre for Contemporary Art Derry~Londonderry, UK, July 6 – 17, 2021; parallel screenings at Platform 2, Abergavenny Train Station, Wales, UK, June 18 – July 17, 2021; and KLA ART, Uganda, Africa, July 16, 2021
“An Infinity of Traces,” Lisson Gallery, London, UK, April 13 – June 6, 2021
“Miraculous Noise: Artists’ Moving Image from Glasgow,” Viborg Kunsthal, Viborg, UK, March 11 – April 11, 2021
“SuperRoom: Ecosystems of Relations,” SUPER DAKOTA, Brussels, Belgium, February 16 – March 23, 2021
“The Portrait in Focus,” Alma Zevi, Venice, Italy, January 28 – March 12, 2021
“Liverpool Biennial 2021: The Stomach and the Port,” Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK, May 19 – June 6, 2021
2020
“Here be Dragons,” Copperfield, London, UK, September 22 – October 31, 2020
“In the Caste of My Skin,” Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK, January 25 – August 8, 2020; travels to Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough, UK, June 11 – October 10, 2021
2019
“13th Havana Biennial,” Wilfredo Lam Center, Havana, Cuba, April 12 – May 12, 2019
“Displaced,” Travelling Gallery, Scotland, UK, ongoing
2018
“Another Country,” City Art Centre, Edinburgh, UK, December 1, 2018 – March 17, 2019
“Stalking the Image, Margaret Tait and Her Legacy,” GOMA, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, November 8, 2018 – May 5, 2019
“TRANS,” University of Johannesburg Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa, August 16 – September 19, 2018
“there’s something in the conversation that is more interesting than the finality of (a title),” The Showroom, London, UK, March 28 – May 5, 2018
“Another Country,” Alice R. Rogers Gallery & Target Gallery, Stearns County, Minnesota, MN, March 12- June 3, 2018
“Inner City,” Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Glasgow, UK, February 16 – November 11, 2018
“WOMXN,” De Balie, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2018
2017
“You never stand in the same water twice,” ROOM 113, Newcastle, UK, September 9 – December 2, 2017
“ANTE,” Suede Gallery, Edinburgh, UK, March 31 – April 14, 2017
2016
“Between democracies 1989–2014: Memory and commemoration,” Dom umenia and Kunsthalle Bratislava, Bratislavia, Slovakia
“Rum Retort,” The Tobacco Warehouse, Greenock, UK, October 15 – 30, 2016
“Hidden Door Festival,” Hidden Door Festival, Edinburgh, UK, May 27 – June 4, 2016
2015
Between democracies 1989–2014: Memory and commemoration,” Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, South Africa, September 3 – 30, 2015
“Embodied Spaces,” Framed Framed, Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 18 – July 26, 2015
“Finite Project Altered When Open,” David Dale Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, June 6 – July 4, 2015
Johannesburg Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, May 6 – 14, 2015
2014
“Resident 14,” Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK, September 6 – October 9, 2014
“International Artist Initiated,” David Dale Gallery, Glasgow, UK, July 19 – August 30, 2014
“Where We’re At! Other Voices on Gender,” The Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR), Brussels, Belgium, June 18 – August 31, 2014
“Transforming Spaces,” National Gallery of Art of The Bahamas (NAGB), Nassau, The Bahamas, April 3 – 6, 2014
“STOP MAKING SENSE,” The Bag Factory, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2014
2013
“CARIFESTA XI,” Caribbean Festival of Arts and Culture, Paramaribo, Suriname, August 16 – 25, 2013
“women.object.corpse,” Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa, April 24 – May 9, 2013
2012
“Streets of Gold,” Museum of London, London, UK, January 20 – April 15, 2012
“LOOPING,” Greatmore Studios, Cape Town, South Africa, 2012
2011
“Split,” Arratia Beer and Sommer un Kohl, Berlin, Germany, 2011
“Pop Up Cocktail Bar and Love Club,” The Motorcycle Showroom, Bristol, UK, 2011
2010
“NWSP 10 Years,” Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, October 16, 2010 – February 27, 2011
“The Secret Confession,” Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, November 6 – December 8, 2010
Projects and Commissions:
2023
“All About Love,” BUILDHOLLYWORD, Edinburgh, UK, December 11 – 17, 2023
“Feeling Blue,” Royal Museums of Greenwich, London, UK, October 5, 2023 – March 31, 2024
2022
“Alberta Whittle: Congregation (Creating Dangerously),” Grand Union, Birmingham, May 19, 2021 – December 16, 2022
2019
“Without Tides, An Invitation,” Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh, UK, 2019
Performances:
2023
“Alberta Whittle: The Last Born — making room for ancestral transmissions,” Edinburgh Art Festival 2023, Parliament Hall, Edinburgh, UK, August 13, 2023
2021
“DIS-A lesson in Reversal or Unlearning” Two Temple Place, London, UK, July 9, 2021
2015
“The Cradle,” Goethe On Main, Johannesburg, South Africa, October 1, 2015
2014
“Right of Admission,” ROOM Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa, October 3, 4, 10, 11, 2014
Lectures and talks:
2023
“Create Dangerously,” Hawthornden Lecture Theater, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK, March 31, 2023
“The Past is Present: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration,” Engine for Art, Democracy and Justice, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, November 1, 2023
“The Legacies of the Ball’s Plantation,” Zoom Lecture online, hosted by Holburne Museum Bath, UK, April 20, 2023
“Alberta Whittle In Conversation with Curator Will Cooper,” Holburne Museum, Bath, UK, January 27, 2023
2022
“Memory | Alberta Whittle in Conversation with Dr Peggy Brunache,” Scotland+Venice Cinema Tour, Glasgow Film Theater, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, September 20, 2022
“Conversation with Alberta Whittle and Dr Neal Shasore,” Queens House, Royal Museums of Greenwich, UK, September 26, 2022
“Conversation with Alberta Whittle and Lewis Gilbert,” EartH, London, UK, September 7, 2022
“AfroScots: Revisiting the Work of Black Artists in Scotland through New Collecting,” Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Glasgow, Scotland, UK, March 12, 2022
Solo Screenings:
2024
“Alberta Whittle: The Axe Forgets, But The Tree Remembers,” The Byre Theatre, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland, UK, January 17, 2024
2022
“Lagareh — The Last Born,” Scotland+Venice Cinema Tour, Glasgow Film Theater, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, September 20, 2022; traveled to Eden Court, Inverness, UK, October 27, 2022; Mareel, Shetland Arts, Lerwick, UK, November 27, 2022; MacRobert Building, University of Aberdeen, UK, January 25, 2023; Broadford Town Hall, Isle of Skye, February 11, 2023; and Ayr Town Hall, Ayr, UK, March 1, 2023
“The Axe Forgets But the Tree Remembers,” EartH, London, UK, September 7, 2022; traveled to The Rio Cinema, Hackney, September 21, 2022; National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK, September 26, 2022
2021
“KLA ART 21,” Uganda, Africa, July 16, 2021
“Art Night London,” Platform 2, Abergavenny Train Station, Wales, UK, June 18 – July 17, 2021
“business as usual: hostile environment (A REMIX),” Outdoor Cinema, Glasgow Sculpture Studios, Glasgow, UK, June 11 – 27, 2021
2019
“Alberta Whittle: sorry not sorry,” part of “The Imagined New (Or, what happens when History is a catastrophe?) – Working Through Alternative Archives: Art, History and the African Diaspora,” University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa, May 11, 2019 [performance and screening]
Group Screenings:
2023
“Videonale, Scope Festival #10,” Turistarama, Cologne, Germany, November 30, 2023
“SET Film Festival,” SET Social, London, UK, November 16, 2023
“Film Works,” Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts, Norwich, UK, June 8, 2023
“Earth Day Screening,” Lighthouse, Brighton, UK, April 22, 2023
2020
“Glasgow Short Film Festival,” Civic House, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, March 21, 2020
“Kaleidoskop,” Karlsplatz, Vienna, Austria, June 26 – July 17, 2020
2018
“Self-Service,” Centre for Contemporary Arts Glasgow (CCA), Glasgow, Scotland, UK, April 26, 2018
Public Collections:
Advanced Research Centre, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario
Arts Council Collection, London, UK
The University of Edinburgh Art, Edinburgh, Scotland
Glasgow Museums Collection, Glasgow, Scotland
Government Art Collection, London, UK
The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum, Dundee, Scotland
Museums of the University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Scotland
Awards, Residencies, and Fellowships:
2021
CCA Derry Creating Dangerously
2020
Frieze Artist Award
Tate Turner Bursary
Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award
2018
Margaret Tait Award