Denzil Forrester

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)

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 Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA (touring, catalogue)

2024
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 (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
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?, 58^th 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

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

1983 
Scholarship, British School at Rome

Public Collections

Aïshti Foundation, Antelias, Lebanon
Arts Council Collection, UK
Government Art Collection, UK
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
Tate, UK