Divine Southgate-Smith develops a transdisciplinary practice that comprises photographic collage, sculpture, moving image, performance, writing, spoken word, and 3D animation. Her/their approach to art-making is medium non-specific and collaborative, allowing her/them to explore complex narratives through various mediums and disciplines while navigating speculative spaces where things are abstracted, contextualised, de-contextualised, voiced, or silenced. Questioning the traditional equation between sight and understanding, Southgate-Smith invites us to observe and examine visual representations of the future whilst in constant dialogue with the past. Her/their artwork touches on themes of oppression, stereotyping, intersectionality, empowerment, and joy while referencing and questioning articulations of black, queer, and female experience. Her/their practice relies on research and intuition, often turning to literature, music, imagination, community, and archive material as primary sources of inspiration and creation.
Southgate-Smith was born in 1995 in Lomé, Togo, and currently lives and works in London, UK. In 2022, she/they received her/their Postgraduate Diploma from the Royal Academy Schools (The Royal Academy of Arts, London), having previously completed her/their undergraduate study in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins (London, 2017).
Selected solo exhibitions include Aspects of Things Existing, Frieze London with Nicoletti (2024); Am I Porous or Imploding, EAST Gallery, Norwich University of the Arts, UK (2024); What I’ve Been Doing Lately, CEU open gallery, Budapest, organised and supported by The British council, as a part Photo Festival (2024); SPIT, Duo exhibition with Emmanuel Awuni, Public Gallery, London, UK; TEETH KISSIN’, Soup Gallery, London, UK (2023)
Selected group exhibitions include Power Plants: Intoxicants, Stimulants & Narcotics, Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts, Norwich, UK (2024); Field of Difference, Palmer Gallery, London, UK (2024); The last train after the last train, PUBLIC Gallery, London, UK (2023); Globalisto: Fragments of a Community, curated by Mo Laudi, 31 PROJECT, Paris, FR (2023); Galerina x Arcadia Missa, Ways of Living 3.0, Arcadia Missa, London, UK (2023); DAWA, curated by Latif Samassi, 3537, Paris, FR (2023); The Ultimate Bootleg Experience, Studio Chappel, London, UK (2023); Of Mythic Worlds, curated by Harold Offeh, Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts, Norwich, UK (2022); 144, Reference Point, 180 Strand, London, UK (2022); FEŸ, Feÿ Arts, Château du Feÿ, Villecien, FR (2022); The Practice of Listening, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (2022), FRENTE n2, Desterro, Lisbon, PT (2019); Europe Under Construction, SCHRILL, Braunschweig, DE (2019); (Putting words) in my mouth, Galeria Foco (2019), Mellifluous Elephant, Casa da Dona Laura, Lisbon, PT (2019); PADA STUDIO presents Capitulo, Auditório Municipal Augusto Cabrita (2019); Feedback, The Switch Gallery, Lisbon, PT (2019); and Dis (Places), Galeria Foco, Lisbon, PT (2018).
In 2022 she/they published her/them first book as part of an ongoing series: TEETH KISSIN’ Where Elephants Reside, published by Lichen Books, and All Purpose Studios.
Southgate-Smith’s work is part of a number of permanent collections, including The Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK; Casa Do Design, Porto, PT; Lexus Private collection, Brussels, BE.
Award nominations include; Frame Awards (2021); Mullen LoweGroup Nova Award (2017); International Takifuji Art Award (2017); and The Art Academy Drawing Prize (2014).
