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Artist Biography 

 

Selected Awards and Bursaries

 

2021 Yale Artist Fellowship

2021  Juried Member Royal Society of Sculptors, England

2020  CCCADI’s Institute for Racial and Social Justice in Arts & Culture, NY USA.

2020  Earth Seed Scholarship The Black Permaculture Network, USA

2017  Boss Harlan Foundation Stipend, USA, University of Minnesota.

2015  TINA Award Winner

2014  Leon Levy Foundation grant recipient, USA

2014  David and Rosamund Putmann Transportation Fund, MacDowell Colony, NH, USA

2013  Emergency Craft Award Finalist, Aspex Gallery, Plymouth, England.

2013  Shortlisted for Neo Art Prize, Bolton, England.

2012  Selected as a winner of the  Premio-Ora Contemporary Art Prize, Italy

2012  Selected as Artslant award winner for the showcase for Sculpture, NY, USA

2009  Scholarship for MFA program at the Transart Institute Krems, Austria 

1989  Bursary to attend the Royal St. Catherine’s Conference of Commonwealth Arts                  Windsor, England 

 

Selected Exhibitions and Residencies

 

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2024

Dakar Biennale “The Wake, L'Éveil, Le Sillage” upcomming

City of London Commission "Revealing the Ciy's Past" upcoming

Speaker Southampton University "Flowing Image" Conference.

Unit Gallery London "Caribbean Contemporary The Sun Never Sets"

UCL Urban Room "Sonia E Barrett Maplective"

 

2023

Tate Britain, London

Diaspora Pavillion 2, International Curators Forum, “Quantum Black” Block 366 Gallery, 

Wolfsberg Contemporary Art Museum, “Planetary Feminisms”, with What the hELL she doin'? Collective, Germany

John Hansard Gallery “Rush Me”, Southampton

Public Commission by Sheffield Hallam University through Empathy & Risk CIC in collaboration with MOSAF (Museum of Slavery and Freedom), Deptford, London.

Yale University, Workshop on “Here Tell, Quantum Black”, Yale, USA

Material Inequalities, lecture Birmingham University, Birmingham.

Vindolanda Museaum Artist in Residence, Hexham

Capsule Caribbean Exhibition 1:54 presents at Christie's London 

OCA gallery, Cromwell Place “Pouring From a Vessel of Knowledge” 

Morley Gallery London “Embodied” London

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2022

  • Wolfsberg Contemporary Art Museum “Planetary Feminisms”, Germany

   with What the hELL she doin? Collective

  • Selected for MOSAF Commission Deptford, London

  • MOSAF Exhibition The Shipwright’s Hall,  London

  • Yale Artist Fellowship Spring 2022

  • Up Projects Digital Windrush Commission “Rush Me” London,

  • Black Futures Fair, Black Geographers, Birmingham, Workshop leader

  • Duke University Centre for Documentary Studies, USA Workshop leader

  • “I am Mili” Hase 24, Osnabruck Germany

  • Shortlisted for the Gladstone Park, Brent Artist Intervention.

  • The National Gallery, lecture on Hogarth 

  • Texts and article for Tate Britain Gallery and Publication, Hogarth

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2021

 

  • Solo Show in conjunction with Zelda, and Arcade Gallery, London.

  • Inaugural fellow of DEAR Program Residency Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute supported by the Altman Foundation, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and The New York Community Trust.

  • Artist Talk, Art History Department, University of St Andrews, Scotland. 

  • Digital Commission, Up Projects, London

  • Longlisted for Windrush Sculptural Commission, Waterloo Station London.

  • Installation at the Ondatjee Theatre RGS London.

  • “Roots Culture Identity” TUC Race Relations Committee and Artists' Union England

  • Solo Show at The Royal Geographical Society, London commissioned by CARICUK (Creative approaches to race and in/security in the Caribbean and the UK) led by Dr Patricia Noxolo

  • CaFA Art Fair Bridgetown, Barbados

  • “Return of the GIF!” White Page Gallery, Anonymous Waves.

 

2020

 

  • Prizm Art Fair, Miami, Calabar Gallery, NY

  • Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture, now an online exhibition called "WATERGATE - From water to land, from land to water", Croatia.

  • Selected for the International Social Distancing Festival.com 

  • Fellowship CAT+SR Nairobi, Kenya.

  • Lecturer Drawing Medicine Department, University of Southampton, England

  • Solo Show: “Sky” Villa Romana, Florence, Italy. 

  • “Womanism" Circle Gallery in conjunction with Ostrale Biennale, Nairobi

  • Selected for the Mcollective Feral Practice at Chisenhale Studio, England

  • Selected for Test Card Project, with live Cinema UK “Hyperlink” England

  • Venice Agenda's online exhibition "Platform Art Project", commissioned by invitation.

  • Selected for Residency at West Dean College of Art and Conservation, England to consider "Whose Heritage?" 

  • ​

2019

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  • Finalist: Assistant Professor of Sculpture tenure track University of Minnesota USA

  • Ostrale Biennale, Dresden, Germany

  • Panel member “Womanism” Goethe Institute, Dresden Germany

  • "A Space" bursary Panel, Southampton England

  • Bleddfa Cultural Centre Wales "Out of the Woods"

  • The Black Pow(d)er Room screening at Grrlhousecinema, Berlin.

  • "Ghosting" Residency Artsadmin, Toynbee Studios, London England.

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2018

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  • “Beyond Windrush” The MAC (Midlands Art Centre) Birmingham, UK in interview with Dr Pat Knoxolo.

  • Iwalewahaus,"Prekäre Kunst” Bayreuth.

  • Artists Talk, University of Bayreuth and Forschungsinstitut für Musiktheater

  • The One Gallery, “EXIST... an Ode to Ballet” New York

  • The University of Leeds “Hello Culture: Digital Identities” Including a position a

   panel member and Artist Talk.

  • National Trust legacies of colonialism workshop lecture Empire and unstated-

   Stately Homes, Birmingham.

  • Artists talk, The University of Amsterdam.

   Residency, hosted “Talking to ourselves”. The aipcc, Bavaria, Germany.

 

2017 

 

  • Artist Talk and Exhibition British Library, London, UK​​

  • August "Topophilia" Contemporary Visual Projects “The hygge and the un-hygge”Mid and Western Jutland, Denmark

  • March “Loving Blackness” Asian Arts Initiative, Philadelphia, USA

  • Commission Derby Museum and Art Gallery and exhibition, England.

  • CARISCC commission Caribbean insecurities creativity and negotiation in the Caribbean, Birmingham, England.

  • Bridge the Gap Exhibition II at Derby Museums with Artcore. 

  • Residency East Street Arts Leeds, Union 105, Leeds England

  • March, Artists Talk Keynote Leeds University, Leeds Postgraduate Conference on Caribbean In/securities and Creativity, England

  • June, British Library, London, UK

  • Aug, The Light House, Glasgow, UK

  • Oct, Union 105/East Street Arts. Leeds UK

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2016

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   “My Future Non-Identity Will” Tete Gallery, Berlin, Germany.

  • “(re) Thinking Feminism and Black Womanhood Open lab and exhibition,

  • 32 degrees East Gallery, Kampala, Uganda. including Artist Talk for Goethe Zen- trum and Iwalele House.

  • The National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston, West Indies. "Digital"

  • Transart Triennale, Berlin, Germany. "The Imperceptible Self"

  • “Digital”, The National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica.

  • “A Traveling Exhibition” Create or Die, Sydney, Australia.

  • “Afrosonic Signifier” in conversation with Satch Hoyt broadcast at Gallery Kit at the Trondheim Academy of Art, Meta Morf 2016 Trondheim Biennale for art and technology.

  • “On-Site in 16 Cities” Babette, Karl Marx Allee 36 Berlin, Jan, Germany.

 

2015

 

  • “Double Life” The Berlin Collective, Feb, Berlin, Germany. 

  • “The Format Follow” The Format-Contemporary Culture Gallery, March Milan, Italy.

  • Pop up show with Olaf Holzapfel at the Kunstfabrik Flutorgraben ev. Berlin Sept.

  • Gallery Below 65 “Edge” Plymouth Aug, England. 

  • Borgo Ensemble, "Dialogannahme", Nürnberg, Germany.

  • NN Kunst Preis Sonderausstellung, Kunsthaus Nürnberg, Kunst Kultur Quatier,Germany

  • Schlachten “Displaced” Mendelsohnhalle, Brandenburg, June/July, Germany

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2014

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• MacDowell Colony Residency, New Hampshire, USA Nov/Dec

• TIAF The Independent Artists Fair (not for profit artists coop) London 15th  -18th Oct during Frieze London

• "Home" Orange County Centre for Contemporary Art, OCCCA, California, USA

• Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA), USA

• "The Grass Grows"  The Format Gallery in conjunction with ArtLab Gallery,Glenda  Cinquegrana Basel, Switzerland, during Art Basel.

• Amy-d arte spazio, "Ghoramara" of Deasung Lee with the Desktop Garden Group    Milan, Italy  

• "The Secret Gardens" in Fabbrica del Vapore, an Artist intervention in Milan  Design Week, Italy.

 

2013

     

• Resistance and Longing, CIAT- Contemporary Institute for Art & Thought, Berlin,   Germany.

• Emergency Craft Show, Aspex Gallery, Plymouth, England.

• London Calling, Factory Art Gallery, 4 Wilkes Street, London, England.

• Reloaded, Factory Art Gallery, Momsen Strasse 27, Berlin, Germany.

• Solo Show: Otherings sea/home Magazzini dell'Arte Contemporanea, Trapani, Italy.

• Nutrimenti Trapani Biennale, Museum of the Sea, Trapani, Italy.

• Unlucky, Berlin Collective, Online show, Berlin, Germany.

• Precursor, Catalyst Arts Center, Belfast, Ireland.

• The Story of the Creative Angel Orensanz Gallery, Long Island City, NY, USA

• “Keywords” project with INIVA and Tate Liverpool, England

• Critique leader for European students of Transart Institute

 

2012

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• Coiled Potentials, Atelierhof, Berlin

• Home and Away Caribbean Art project and 4Hr Nap Collective, WOMA, Grenada, WI

• Berlin Collective workshop with John Von Bergen, Berlin

• Film collaboration with Rex Films

• Video Workshop Art Institute New York with N.Cohen Jan 2012

• Residency Like the Spice Gallery Transart Institute, New York,2011

•„Making Mirrors“ NGBK, (Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst) Berlin, Germany.

 

 

2011

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• Nothing to Declare Blanc compound Manila, Philippines

• Residency, Like the Spice Gallery Transart Institute, New York,

• Making Mirrors, NGBK, Berlin, Germany,

• Snap to Grid Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, LA

• Art in the Open Rosenwald Wolf Gallery, Philadelphia

• Art in the Open, Installation in the Saucihall Park Philadelphia

• Group Residency Dia Beacon, New York

• Winter Residency, Sideshow Gallery Transart Institute, New York

• Open Space Projekt: Zwischenraum für Kunst & Migration, Heinrich Böll Institute,   Berlin Germany.

 

2010

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• Summer Residency Tanzfabrik Berlin, Transart Institute 2009

• Black Fine Arts Fair, 2008, 2009 New York

 

 

Selected Publications
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Contemporary & América Latina "Ecologias" Print edition 12/4  

The British Art Studies Journal, Cover collaboration “Beyond Interspecies Objectification.” 

Flash Art Italy, 348 Mar-Apr,2020 Sonia Elizabeth Barrett "Sky" Villa Romana/ Firenze by Angela Moya Garcia.

Installation View #museumshutdown 19.March 2020, "Sonia Elizabeth Barrett: Sky" Contemporary & Magazine. 

Protocollum 2017/18 Issue 4 Global Perspectives on Visual Vocabulary. Dickersbach Kunst Verlag.

Small Axe “SX 57: 11.2018” “The Difficult Conversation” by Dr Carol Dixon.

ELSE Journal Issue 2: “The Imperceptible Self” 2017 by Jennie Klein.

Authored Article on Tracey Rose at Dan Gun Gallery for “Sleek Magazine-The Visual Contemporary” 2015

Work featured in The ELSE Journal, Issue 1. 2015

Contemporary & "Complicating the Notion of identity" By Will Furtado Lundi 30 Janvier 2017 (with image)

Kunstforum International, Vol 210,211, pg 324, 2011 (with image)

"Daima" Images of Women of Color in Germany by Nzitu Mawakha Series: Witnessed, 2013

"The Little Book of Big Visions. How to be an Artist and Revolutionize the World" ed. Sandrine Micossé-Aikins and Sharon Dodua Otoo  2012 (with image)

International Review of African American Art Innovation ed. 2011 vol.23 (with image)

Interkultur Newspaper Berlin Jul/Aug 2010 (with image)

Black History 365 Journal, London, pg 4, 2000(with image)

 

            

Education and Related Experience
 

MFA Studio Practice Transart Institute  Berlin/New York           

MA Degree English Literature St Andrews University Scotland

Dissertation Poetry and Art in Caribbean Culture

PDC Permaculture Design Qualification

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