The issues the art world has with both sexism and racism are well documented by groups like the Guerrilla Girls and easy to see for yourself in most of the largest galleries in the world. I have been investing time into surrounding myself with brilliant female artists and recently picked up Great Women Artists and Breaking Ground which I cannot recommend highly enough - full of inspiration and great to look at over a huge cup of tea on the sofa. Featured in Great Women Artists is the woman I’d like to celebrate today, Sonia Boyce.

Sonia has been chosen to represent the UK at Biennale Arte 2021, the world's most important contemporary art festival. She’ll be presenting a solo exhibition of new work and is the first black woman to represent the UK. Previous artists commissioned to represent Britain have included Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Francis Bacon, and Tracey Emin.

On accepting the British Council commission, Sonia said:

“You could have knocked me down with a feather when I got the call to tell me I had been chosen to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale 2021 – it was like a bolt out of the blue. I’m extremely honoured, excited – and nervous. I’m eager to start this creative journey, exploring the experience with others who agree to work with me along the way”.

Sonia is a British Afro-Caribbean artist, living and working in London. She’s a Professor of Black Art and Design at University of the Arts London. After graduating from Stourbridge College of Art in 1983, she became a key figure in the British Black Arts Movement of the 1980s alongside artists including Lubaina Himid and Maud Sulter. This isn’t the first first she has under her belt either, she was the first black woman to be elected a Royal Academician and in 2019 she was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List.

She told the Guardian’s Charlotte Higgins:

“It was very clear when I was at art college that I was somehow out of place; the system hadn’t anticipated me, or anyone like me. Even though there were a lot of female students, they were thought about as though they were being trained to become the wives of artists, not artists themselves. As a black person, there wasn’t a narrative at all. Maybe to be a model.”

Her early works tackled issues of race, gender and contemporary urban experience. Since the 1990s, her work has taken on a collaborative approach. In 1987 she became the first black woman to enter the Tate’s collection when it bought her drawing Missionary Position II.

Sonia’s work conveys political messages focusing on black representation. Tate visited her studio in 2018 to discover how she is reconstructing and gathering a history of black women who have been forgotten by white society. Check out their conversation below:

Be sure to look out for Sonia’s works which are now held in the collections of Tate Modern, Victoria & Albert Museum, the Government Art Collection, British Council and the Arts Council Collection at Southbank Centre.

Sonia Boyce, Biennale Arte