Alberta Whittle

Alberta Whittle is an artist, researcher, writer and curator from Barbados in the Lesser Antilles (West Indies). Born in 1980, she developed her work in Barbados, Scotland and South Africa. Whittle is currently working as an associate researcher at the University of Johannesburg and is a committee member at the Transmission Gallery in Glasgow as well as on the board of the Scottish Creative Art Network (SCAN).

Her artwork focuses on addressing racial self-esteem and mutual protection in order to denounce racism. Whittle’s artistic practice involves choreography in interactive installations in public and private spaces, using film, sculpture and performance. In 2018, Whittle was a RAW Academie Fellow at RAW Material in Dakar, Senegal and received the Margaret Tait Film Award for 2018/19 and in 2020, she was one of ten artists to receive the Turner Award, in addition to winning the Frieze Artist Award.

Whittle has participated in several solo- and group exhibitions, including the 13th Havana Biennale (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). The Contemporary Art Research Collection at Edinburgh University of the Arts has acquired some of her work and her writings have been published in MAP magazine, Visual Culture in Britain, Visual Studies, Art South Africa and Critical Arts Academic Journal.

https://www.albertawhittle.com/