Biography

Alberta Whittle was born in 1980 in Barbados, and currently works between Barbados, Scotland and South Africa.

She was awarded her MFA from Edinburgh College of Art in 2011, after having completed her BA in Fine Arts at the Glasgow School of Art. She is currently a research associate at the University of Johannesburg.

The artist’s work spans film, sculpture, performance, photography, and digital collage, often incorporating multiple elements to create interactive installations. Rooted in the experiences of diaspora, her practice harnesses the values of radical self-love and collective care, using public and private spaces to confront colonial history and start important conversations about healing and reparations.

Selected exhibitions include Right of Admission Retrospective (with Farieda Nazier), University of Johannesburg Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa (forthcoming, 2020); LUX London (forthcoming, 2019); 13^th Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba (2019), Without Tides, an invitation, Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop, UK (2019); Useless (with Emilio Bianchic), Pig Rock Bothy, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK (2019); There’s something in the conversation that’s more interesting than the finality of (a title), The Showroom, London, UK (2018); Inner city, GOMA, Glasgow, UK (2018); TRANS, University of Johannesburg Gallery and The Bag Factory, Johannesburg, South Africa (2018); Self Service, CCA Glasgow, UK (2018); Johannesburg Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2015); and Embodied Spaces, FRAMER FRAMED, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2015).

Selected performances include The Imagined New (or what happens when history is a catastrophe): Working through Alternative Archives: Art, History and the African Diaspora, University of Johannesburg, South Africa (forthcoming, 2019); Between a whisper and a cry: accumulating gestures, Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Glasgow, Scotland) (forthcoming, 2019); Corpus Callosum, RAW Material, Dakar, Senegal (2018); Right of Admission, The Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa (2017); and Temple of Radical Self Love, Chale Wote, Jamestown, Accra, Ghana (2016).

Whittle was a RAW Academie Fellow at RAW Material in Dakar in 2018, and the Margaret Tait Award winner for 2018/9. As part of the latter, she presented work in the exhibition Stalking the Image: Margaret Tait and Her Legacy at GoMA, Glasgow, UK. In 2019, she was nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award. She has participated in residencies including Associate Art Residency, GOMA, Glasgow, UK (2019); Creative Lab, CCA, Glasgow, UK (2018); the The Bag Factory, Johannesburg, South Africa (2014).

In 2019, the artist will be presenting Business as Usual, her first solo exhibition with Tyburn Gallery. She will also mount a solo exhibition at Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) titled How flexible can we make the mouth.

Education

2011

MFA, Edinburgh College of Art (ECA), Edinburgh, Scotland.

2002

BA Fine Arts, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2019

Business as Usual, Tyburn Gallery, London, UK. (forthcoming)

How flexible can we make the mouth, Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) (forthcoming)

2010

badmanabadman, Bridgetown Gallery, Barbados.

Two person Exhibitions

2020

Right of Admission Retrospective (with Farieda Nazier), University of Johannesburg Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa. (forthcoming)

2019

Useless (with Emilio Bianchi), Pig Rock Bothy, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK.

2016

The Polity of Φ (with Deniz Uster), Glasgow Project Room and Intermedia, the CCA, Glasgow, UK.

2015

The Cradle (with Dean Hutton), Goethe On Main, Johannesburg, South Africa.

2014

Right of Admission (with Farieda Nazier), ROOM Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2019

LUX, London, UK. (forthcoming)

Group exhibition, The Reid Gallery, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, UK. (forthcoming)

The Imagined New, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. (forthcoming)

Without Tides, an invitation, Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop, UK. (forthcoming)

13^th Havana Biennial, Wilfredo Lam Center, Havana, Cuba.

Stalking the Image: Margaret Tait and Her Legacy, GoMA, Glasgow, UK.

2018

Another Country, The City Arts Centre, Edinburgh, UK.

Displaced, Travelling Gallery, Scotland, UK.

There’s something in the conversation that’s more interesting than the finality of (a title), The Showroom, London, UK.

Inner city, GOMA, Glasgow, UK.

REGURGITATE, [SPACE], London, UK.

TRANS, University of Johannesburg Gallery and The Bag Factory, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Another Country, Alice R Rogers & Target Galleries, St. John’s University, Minnesota, USA.

Self Service, CCA Glasgow, UK.

2017

You never stand in the same water twice, ROOM 113, Newcastle, UK.

WOMXN , De Balie, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

ANTE, Suede Gallery, Edinburgh, UK.

2016

Between democracies 1989-2014: Memory and commemoration, Dom umenia and Kunsthalle Bratislava, Bratislavia, Slovakia.

Rum Retort, The Tobacco Warehouse, Greenock, UK.

Hidden Door Festival, Hidden Door, Electric City, Edinburgh, UK.

2015

Between Democracies 1989-2014: Memory and Commemoration, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Johannesburg Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy.

Embodied Spaces, FRAMER FRAMED, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Finite Project Altered When Open, David Dale Gallery, Glasgow, UK.

2014

Residencies 14, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Where We’re At! Other Voices on Gender, BOZAR, Brussels, Belgium.

International Artist Initiated, David Dale Gallery, Glasgow.

Transforming Spaces, National Art Gallery, Bahamas.

Stop Making Sense, The Bag Factory, Johannesburg, South Africa.

2013

Woman, Object, Corpse, Centre for African Studies, UCT, Cape Town, South Africa.

CARIFESTA XI, Paramaribo, Suriname.

2012

Streets of Gold, Museum of London, London, UK.

Loopings, Greatmore Studios, South Africa.

2011

Split, Arratia Beer and Sommer und Kohl, Berlin, Germany.

Pop Up Cocktail Bar and Love Club, The Motorcycle Showroom, Bristol, UK.

2010

The Secret Confession, Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland, UK.

NWSP 10 years, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, UK.

Screenings

2018

Curatorial Care: Humanising Practice, FADA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.

SQUIFF 2018, Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow, UK.

We Suffer to Remain, (sponsored by the British Council and LUX), National Art Gallery of the Bahamas

Transoceanic Visual Exchange, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia; Third Horizon Media and Miami Book Fair, Miami, USA.

Glare, GFT, Glasgow, UK.

LUX Screenings, Eden Court, Aberdeen and Belmost Filmhouse, Aberdeen, UK.

AfroScots – A Screening Programme of Artist Film and Video, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, UK; Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, UK.

2017

AfroScots – A Screening Programme of Artist Film and Video, Galerie de l’UQAM, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

2016

Bedlam Fringe Film Festival, Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh, UK.

2015

Transoceanic Visual Exchange, VAN Lagos, Nigeria and Punch Gallery, Barbados.

Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, Medulla Gallery, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Performances & Events

2019

The Imagined New (or what happens when history is a catastrophe): Working through Alternative Archives: Art, History and the African Diaspora, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. (forthcoming)

Between a whisper and a cry: accumulating gestures, Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Glasgow, Scotland) (forthcoming)

Recipe for Planters Punch, UNFIX Festival, CCA, Glasgow, UK. (forthcoming)

2018

Corpus Callosum, RAW Material, Dakar, Senegal.

2017

Right of Admission, The Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa.

You never stand in the same water twice, ROOM 113, Newcastle, UK.

2016

Temple of Radical Self Love, Chale Wote, Jamestown, Accra, Ghana.

Rum Retort, The Tobacco Warehouse, Greenock, UK.

2015

Johannesburg Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale, Italy.

Right of Admission II, Shepstone Gardens, Johannesburg, South Africa.

2013

Women Object Corpse, Centre for African Studies, UCT, Cape Town, South Africa.

2012

Hustle De Money, Fresh Milk, Barbados.

Publications

2018

Whittle, Alberta, Out of Office Auto Reply, MAP magazine, Issue #45, June 2018.

2016

Whittle, Alberta, Review: “Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman” by Michelle Wallace, Visual Culture in Britain, Volume 17, Issue 3, pp. 362-364.

2014

Reviewer, Art South Africa magazine, Volume 12, Issue 4, June 2014; and Volume 13, Issue 1, September 2014.

2012

Gibson, N. Jade, Visual Ethnographies of Displacement and Violence: Land(e)scapes in artists’ works at Thupelo Artists’ Workshop, Wellington, South Africa 2012, collaboration between Dr N Jade Gibson (South Africa/UK), Alberta Whittle (Barbados/Scotland), Jarrett Erasmus (South Africa), Farooq Mustafa (Japan/Pakistan) and Mthabisi Phili (Zimbabwe), Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies, Volume 27, Issue 5.

Residencies

2019

Associate Art Residency, GOMA, Glasgow, UK.

2018

Creative Lab, CCA, Glasgow, UK.

2014

Visiting Artist Programme, The Bag Factory, Johannesburg, South Africa.

2013

Royal Scottish Academy Residencies for Scotland, UK.

Hospitalfield House and Scottish Sculpture Workshop, UK.

2012

Fresh Milk, Barbados.

Visiting Artist Programme, Greatmore Studios, Cape Town, South Africa.

Thupelo, Wellington, South Africa.

Biography & Press

2019

Preece, John, ‘Travelling Gallery’ Announces Spring 2019 Exhibition, theedinburghreporter.co.uk, 6 March 2019.

2018

----, Alberta Whittle receives Margaret Tait Award, artreview.com, 27 February 2018.

Sharratt, Chris, Alberta Whittle's Decolonizing Impulse, Frieze.com, 28 February 2018.

Hutchinson, Jack, Alberta Whittle wins ninth edition of Margaret Tait Award, a-n.co.uk, 28 February 2018.

----, New exhibition at Glasgow's GoMA celebrates life and work of visionary Scots filmmaker Margaret Tait, glasgowlife.org.uk, 7 November 2018.

Bethell-Bennett, Ian, Sorry for What?, thenassauguardian.com, 19 May 2018.

Awards

2019

Nominee, Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award

2018

Margaret Tait Award

2016

Glasgow Visual Arts & Crafts Award

Grants and Fellowships

2019

Nominee, Drawing Room Bursary

2017

University of Edinburgh Principals Go Abroad Fund

2015

Creative Scotland Open Project Funding

2014

Creative Scotland International Research Grant

Hope Scott Trust

2012

Arts Trust Grant

2010

DWT Cargill Fund Travel Bursary

Collections

University of Edinburgh Contemporary Art Research Collection (CARC), UK.

Barbados National Art Gallery Collection, Barbados.