Alberta Whittle
Alberta Whittle
Alberta Whittle is an artist, researcher, and curator
She was awarded a Turner Bursary, the Frieze Artist Award, and a Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award in 2020. Alberta is a PhD candidate at Edinburgh College of Art and is a Research Associate at The University of Johannesburg. She was a RAW Academie Fellow at RAW Material in Dakar in 2018 and is the Margaret Tait Award winner for 2018/9.
Her creative practice is motivated by the desire to manifest self-compassion and collective care as key methods in battling anti-blackness. She choreographs interactive installations, using film, sculpture, and performance as site-specific artworks in public and private spaces.
Her work has been acquired for the UK National Collections, The Scottish National Gallery Collections, Glasgow Museums Collections and The Contemporary Art Research Collection at Edinburgh College of Art amongst other private collections.
Alberta has exhibited and performed in various solo and group shows, including at Jupiter Artland (2021), Gothenburg Biennale (2021), The Lisson Gallery (2021), MIMA (2021), Viborg Kunstal (2021), Remai Modern (2021), Liverpool Biennale (2021), Art Night London (2021), The British Art Show – Aberdeen (2021), Glasgow International (2021), Glasgow International (2020), Grand Union (2020), Eastside Projects (2020), DCA (2019), GoMA, Glasgow (2019), Pig Rock Bothy at the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (2019), 13th Havana Biennale, Cuba (2019), The Tyburn Gallery, London (2019), The City Arts Centre, Edinburgh (2019), The Showroom, London (2018), National Art Gallery of the Bahamas (2018), RAW Material, Dakar (2018), FADA Gallery, Johannesburg (2018), the Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg (2017), FRAMER FRAMED, Amsterdam (2015), Goethe On Main, Johannesburg (2015), at the Johannesburg Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, Venice (2015), and BOZAR, Brussels (2014), amongst others.
Alberta’s writing has been published in MAP magazine, Visual Culture in Britain, Visual Studies, Art South Africa and Critical Arts Academic Journal.
Image credits:
1. Entanglement is more than blood, 2022, Alberta Whittle. Co-commissioned by Scotland+Venice and Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh. Tapestry by Dovecot Studios.Courtesy of The Artist and The Modern Institute/ Toby Webster Ltd., Glasgow. Photo: Cristiano Corte.
2. Between a whisper and a cry, 2019. Alberta Whittle. Commissioned for the Margaret Tait Award 2018. Courtesy of The Artist and The Modern Institute/ Toby Webster Ltd., Glasgow.
3. RESET, 2020. Alberta Whittle. Co-commissioned by Forma and Frieze London. Courtesy of The Artist and The Modern Institute/ Toby Webster Ltd., Glasgow.
4. Dipping below a waxing moon, the dance claims us for release, 2023. Alberta Whittle. Courtesy of The Artist and The Modern Institute/ Toby Webster Ltd., Glasgow. Photo: Jo Hounsome.