Lubaina Himid

Lubaina Himid is the Turner Prize winning artist, curator and professor championing Black British art. Here's the story of how she got there.

Britain in the 60s… mini skirts, beatlemania, the windrush generation, anti-immigrant racism…

This is the world British-Tanzanian artist Lubaina Himid grew up in. In the 1970s, Lubaina went to university for theatre design. She was inspired by radical theatre from across Europe at the time. But she found the British cultural scene to be lacking in opportunities for Black artists. 

Fancy having got to 1986 and managing to prove that you exist

Le Rodeur: (The Lock), 2016

In the 80s, she went back to university for an MA in cultural history. There, her love of art collided with the work of Black thinkers such as Frantz Fanon and Stuart Hall. As an artist, curator, and now professor – Lubaina showcases the breadth and diversity of Black British art. 

My name is now Turner Prize winning Lubaina Himid.

Le Rodeur: Exchange, 2016

Freedom and Change, 1984


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