Denzil Forrester
Born: Grenada, West Indies, 1956
Lives and works in Cornwall, England
Education
1981-1983
MA Fine Art, Royal College of Art, London, England
1976-1979
BA (Hons) Fine Art, Central School of Art, London, England
1975-1976
Foundation, Central School of Art, London, England
Solo Exhibitions/Projects (selected)
2024
Stephen Friedman Gallery, New York, USA
2023
We Culture, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Florida, USA (catalogue)
With Q, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
Duppy Conqueror, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, USA (catalogue)
2021
Itchin & Scratchin, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, England; travelling to Spike Island, Bristol, England (touring)
2020
Denzil Forrester in Rome, 30 Old Burlington Street, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
2019
Brixton Blue, TFL Commission, Brixton Underground Station, London, England
A Survey, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
2018
From Trench Town to Porthtowan, Jackson Foundation, St Just, England
2016
White Columns, New York
Tramps, London, England
2002
Two Decades of Painting, The Edward Wilmot Blyden Project, 4 Victoria Street, Bristol, England
1996
Memory and Images, Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery, Peterborough, England
1995
Farewell to Shadowland, 198 Gallery, London, England
1991
Dub Transition, Laing art Gallery, Newcastle; Usher Gallery, Lincolnshire, Smith Art Gallery, Stirling; Boundary Gallery, London; The Angel Row, Nottingham; and Lancaster Gallery, Coventry, England (touring)
1990
Dub Transition, Harris Museum & Gallery, Preston (touring)
1987
Limelight Club, New York, USA
1986
Drawing Exhibition, Commonwealth Institute, London, England
1983
Pagan Echoes, Riverside Studios, London, England
Group Exhibitions (selected)
2025
The Power of Drawing, Royal Drawing School, London, England
Dance Your Way Home, Southbank Centre, London, England
Beautiful Collisions, SXSW London, London, England
Lives Less Ordinary: Working-Class Britain Re-seen, Two Temple Place, London, England
The Power of Drawing: Marking 25 Years of the Royal Drawing School, Royal Drawing School, London, England
Revival, Francesca Minini, Milan, Italy
The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA (touring, catalogue)
2024
The Street: Curated by Peter Doig, Gagosian, New York, USA
Drawing the Unspeakable, Towner Eastbourne, England
Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music, British Library, London, England
The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, National Portrait Gallery, London, England; The Box, Plymouth, England; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (touring, catalogue)
2023
The Place I Am, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
Thin Skin, Monash University Museum of Art, Cauldfield East, Australia (catalogue)
The Rejectionists: The Drawing Center Collective Benefit Exhibition with Pace, Pace Gallery, New York, USA
10 Years Anniversary Show – PART 2, Long Museum, Shanghai, China (catalogue)
Papertrail, Matthew Brown, Los Angeles, California, USA
A voice answering a voice, Tanya Leighton, Berlin, Germany
2022
Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s-today, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (catalogue)
Grayson’s Art Club, Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham, England
Dark Light, Realism in the Age of Post truth: Selections from the Aïshti Foundation Collection, Aïshti Foundation, Antelias, Lebanon
Is it morning for you yet?, 58th Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
because the night belongs to us, The Box, Plymouth, England
Captured Beauty, Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Cornwall, England
Legacies: London Transport’s Caribbean Workforce, London Transport Museum, London, England
2021
Coventry Biennial: Hyper-Possible, Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, England (catalogue)
Life Between Islands: Caribbean–British Art 50s – Now, Tate Britain, London, England (catalogue)
Mixing It Up: Painting Today, Hayward Gallery, London, England (catalogue)
Modern Conversations, Tate St Ives, Cornwall, England
2020
25 Years, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England (catalogue)
Everything is Personal, Tramps, New York, USA
Frieze LIVE, curated by Victor Wang, 9 Cork Street, London, England
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
2019
Get Up, Stand Up Now: Generations of Black Creative Pioneers, Somerset House, London, England
Artists | Steal From, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London, England
2017
Sputterances, Metro Pictures, New York, USA
Sixty Years, Collection Display: Walkthrough British Art, Tate Britain, London, England
2008
Quad, The Gallery in Cork Street, London, England
2007
Artists Doing It for Themselves, Burlington Arcade, London, England
2006
Artists Doing It for Themselves, Thurloe Road, London, England
2005
Artists Doing It for Themselves, Farringdon, London, England
2001
Fresh Art, Business Design Centre, London, England
2000
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
The Painting & Drawing Department, Morley Gallery, London, England
The Selectors, Madeleine Pearson Gallery, London, England
1997
Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain, 1966-1996, Caribbean Cultural Center, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
Foundations of Fame, The London Institute, London, England
1996
Imagined Communities, Oldham Gallery, Oldham, England, John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton, Southampton, England; Firstsite, Colchester, England; Walsall Museum and Art Gallery, Walsall, England; Royal Festival Hall, London, England; and Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland (touring)
1995
Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
The London Art Group, Barbican Art Gallery, London, England
1990
Rome Scholars 1980-90, Royal College of Art, London, England
1989
Caribbean Expressions in Britain, Leicester Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester, England
1988
New Figurative Painters, The Orangery, London, England
Figuring Out the 80s, Laing Gallery, Newcastle, England
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
Painters at the Royal College of Art, 150th Anniversary Show, Royal College of Art, London, England
1987
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
1986
From Two Worlds, Whitechapel Gallery, London, England
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
Open Exhibition, Whitechapel Gallery, London, England
1985
Six Artists in Action, Madeleine Pearson Gallery, London, England
Rome Scholars Final Show, Academia Britannica, Rome, Italy
Bisonte Gallery, Florence, Italy
Wolfson College Gallery, Oxford, England
1984
Open Show. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England
Five Artists in Action, Madeleine Pearson Gallery, London, England
Ten Artists, Accademia Britannica, Rome, Italy
1983
Black on Black, Creation for Liberation, London, England
Six Artists in Action, Madeleine Pearson Gallery, London, England
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
Post Graduate Exhibition, Royal College of Art, London, England
Germinations, Trilateral Art Exhibition travels to London, Edinburgh, Kassel and Lille.
1982
Drawings and Prints, Madeleine Pearson Gallery, London, England
Four Man Show, Sadler's Wells Gallery, London, England
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
1981
Six Man Show, Madeleine Pearson Gallery, London, England
1979
Basement Art Group, CYC Gallery, London, England
Graduate Exhibition, Central School of Art, London, England
1977
Basement Art Group, CYC Gallery, London, England
Publications
2024
The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, National Portrait Gallery, London, England
The Tenth Anniversary of the Long Museum, Long Museum, Shanghai, China
2023
The Place I Am, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
The Rejectionists: Collective Benefit Exhibition between Drawing Center and Pace, New York, USA
Thin Skin, Monash University Museum of Art, Cauldfield East, Australia
2022
Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s-today, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Modern British Art: New Reflections, The Ingram Collection, Lund Humphries, London, England
2021
Coventry Biennial: Hyper-Possible, Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, England
The Anomie Review of Contemporary British Painting 2’, Matt Price, Anomie Publishing, London, England
Life Between Islands: Caribbean–British Art 50s – Now, Tate Britain, London, England
2019
Get Up, Stand Up Now: Generations of Black Creative Pioneers, Somerset House, London, England
Denzil Forrester, foreword by Peter Doig, essays by Sam Thorne and Eddie Chambers
Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
Awards
2021
South Bank Sky Arts Award, UK
Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE)
2019
Morley Fellowship, Morley College, London, England
2000
The Scottish Gallery Diana King Prize, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
1987
Koren-Ferry International Award, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
1986
Harkness Fellowship, New York, USA
1983
Scholarship, British School at Rome
Public Collections
Aïshti Foundation, Antelias, Lebanon
Arts Council Collection, England
Government Art Collection, England
Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston, England
Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Florida, USA
Long Museum, Shanghai, China
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Morley College, London, England
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
Tate, England