Lubaina Himid

Professor of Contemporary Art

School of Creative and Performing Arts
37 St. Peters Street
+44 (0)1772 893991
lhimid@uclan.ac.uk

Biographical Notes / Qualifications

As a  painter, writer and curator Lubaina Himid has participated at an international level in exhibitions conferences books and films on the visual art of the Black Diaspora since the early 1980’s.

Naming the Money(2004) which also  appeared as part of the V&A exhibition Uncomfortable Truths (2007), Swallow Hard : The Lancaster Dinner service (2007) and Talking on Corners Speaking in Tongues (2007) were all central to the cultural events surrounding the commemoration of the 200th anniversary the Abolition of the Slave Trade in Britain.

Her contribution to the publication (2005) and conference(2001) Shades of Black Assembling Black Arts in 1980s Britain at Duke University in the U.S.A. spoke of the importance of black artists archiving the history of their own  visual contribution.

In Fabrications at CUBE in Manchester a group show in which with her monumental  installation Cotton. Com (2002) she explored the tangible yet hidden  links between the factories in Manchester and the fields of Carolina. For Inside the Invisible (2001) commissioned by The Leprosy Museum in Bergen she examined the twin dilemmas of identity and belonging, which developed out of the questions asked in  the solo exhibitions  Plan B at Tate St Ives and Zanzibar at Oriel Mostyn in 2000.; how can you tell the difference between safety and danger.

Curating   exhibitions and  small interventions in spaces such as the Bowes Museum County Durham (2004) and educational, cultural and community venues in the north west has recently been central to her practice as a visual art  facilitator and cultural activist.

As part of the larger project started in the early 80’s with shows such as the Thin Black Line (1986) and Black Woman Time Now(1983) devised to highlight the contribution black artists  have made to visual art in Britain, she has with Susan Walsh in collaboration with the Interpretation and Education Team at  Tate Liverpool, produced  and distributed Open Sesame (2005) and The Point of Collection (2007) These are two dvd/text research documents which examine and reveal the contribution made to the exhibition education and collecting strategies at Tate in recent decades by artists of African, African/American, Asian and Caribbean descent.

Qualifications

B.A. Theatre Design Wimbledon Art School London 1976
M.A. Cultural History Royal College of Art   London 1984

Current Research and Supervision

Visual Art of the Black Diaspora
Contemporary Feminist Visual Art
Media representation of Black  people in Britain

Teaching

Currently teaching across a range of media and courses at B.A. and M.A. level, particularly painting, moving image, and Site and Archive Interventions.

Research Projects

Naming the Money 100 painted life sized wooden cut outs exploring the trauma of enslavement, the struggle for belonging and strategies for survival.

Invited keynote papers on this work will be delivered at
The Art & Diasporas conference at the Clarke Institute Massachusetts April 2008  The Society for Multi Ethnic studies: Europe and Americas conference in June 2008 a The Collegium for African American Research conference on Diasporas and Migration in March 2009.

Common Wild Flowers Kangas and Other Stories a series of paintings in which audience is asked to engage in discussion around cross cultural exchange contribution visibility and representation. Works from this series will form part of  commissions for museum trails and interventions during 2008 and 2009.

Negative positives a series of  Guardian newspaper pages gathered during one year in which the subtle narratives behind photographs and headlines relating to people from  Africa and the Black Diaspora are revealed, using painted patterns and strategic juxtpositions.

External Affiliations / Roles

Board member Arts Council England (North West)
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

Grants

ACE  2007  Swallow Hard: Lancaster Dinner Service The Judges Lodgings Lancaster
ACE  2003  Naming the Money                            Hatton Gallery Newcastle

Selected Publications / Exibitions

Recent publications include a chapter  Inside the Invisible For/Getting Strategy in the award winning publication Shades of Black: Assembling Black  Arts in the 80s Duke University Press/inIVA/Aavaa 2005 Pagination pp41 to pp47 0-8223-3420-8

With Susan Walsh she devised two dvd and publication research resource documents in which the Tate and UCLan teams seek to answer questions about how important or significant the showing and collecting strategies of Tate can be for the visibility, professional careers and ultimate acceptance into the canon of artists of African Caribbean and Asian descent.

Open Sesame (2005) using the recent history of the institution, examined the impact, of exhibitions and displays across Tate sites, on a) the artists and their work  b)  critical discussion  in the media and c) whether audiences from diverse cultures  were able to benefit from “seeing themselves” in the gallery space. Himid and Walsh collected, for the first time, names, dates and details relating to this history which enabled them to make public a vital contribution to Tate’s programme. During extensive discussions with members of Tate’s teams Himid and Walsh contributed to the strategy for developing dialogues with artists, curators and audiences.

The Point of Collection (2007) they examined the entire list of  29,000 artists and 64,000 works (1500 -2007)  to reveal 156 works by  34 artists of African Caribbean and Asian descent. Himid then made extensive investigations to assess whether  a strategic policy is in place for collecting this work. In discussions with staff with responsibility for keeping, publicising and adding to the collection she questioned their decisions and probed for their long term aims for the development of a more visible representation of work by these diverse artists.

Exhibitions include:

Talking on Corners : Speaking in Tongues  Harris Art Gallery 2007
Uncomfortable Truths Victoria & Albert Museum and tour 2007

Swallow Hard - Judges Lodgings, 2007

Swallow - Judges Lodgings, Lancaster, 2006

Migratory Aesthetics - Leeds University, Leeds  , 2006

Distance No Object - Bowes Museum 2004/5

Naming the Money - Hatton Gallery Newcastle 2004

Fabrications - CUBE Manchester  2002

Inside the Invisible - St Jorgens Museum Bergen 2001

Zanzibar - Oriel Mostyn Llandudno 1999

Plan B - Tate Gallery St Ives  1999/2000

Hogarth on Hogarth - Victoria & Albert Museum 1998

Vernets Studio - Transmission Glasgow/5th Havana Bienalle 1994