Dame Sonia Boyce RA

Dame Sonia Boyce OBE is a British Afro-Caribbean artist who lives and works in London. She studied at Stourbridge College, West Midlands. Boyce’s early work addressed issues of race and gender in the media and in day-to-day life. She expressed these themes through large pastel drawings and photographic collages.

Her work has since shifted materially and conceptually by incorporating a variety of media such as photographs, collages, films, prints, drawings, installation and sound. Her recent work collaboratively brings the audience into sharper focus as an integral part of the artwork, between artist, vocalists and audience, demonstrating how cultural differences might be articulated, mediated and enjoyed. Boyce’s significant exhibitions include Five Black Women, African Centre, London (1983); Sonia Boyce: For you, only you, Magdalen College, Oxford and subsequent UK venues (2007 – 2008); and All the World’s Futures, 56th Venice Biennale, Arsenale and Giardini (2015).

She is represented in the permanent collections of Arts Council England and Tate Modern, London. In 2007, Boyce was awarded an MBE in The Queen’s Birthday Honours, and an OBE in the 2019 New Year Honours, for services to art. She was made a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours, again for services to art. She is currently Professor of Fine Arts at Middlesex University, London and Professor of Black Art and Design at University of the Arts London.

Profile

Royal Academician

Painter

Nationality: British

Elected RA: 9 March 2016

Gender: Female

Preferred media: Painting, Printmaking, and Film making

Works by Dame Sonia Boyce in the RA Collection

2 results

Related articles

Associated books

1 results