Meet the artist: Ingrid Pollard
24 October 2024
Our autumn/winter 2024 season features the work of five highly acclaimed artists. Here, you can find out about award-winning artist, photographer and researcher Ingrid Pollard MBE whose recent body of work, 'Three Drops of Blood' forms part of our 'Land Sea Sky' exhibition.
1
Ingrid Pollard was born in Georgetown, Guyana in 1953 and moved to England as a child.
2
She studied Film and Video at the London College of Printing, received an MA in Photographic Studies from the University of Derby and earned a PhD from the University of Westminster.
3
Her work is known for its nuanced exploration of identity and place, particularly in relation to the Black British experience. She's been instrumental in challenging and expanding the representation of Black people in British visual culture.
4
She's primarily known for her work in photography (both colour and black and white) but also works in installation, video and printmaking, exploring themes of race, identity, belonging and the British landscape.
5
She was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2022 for her exhibtion Carbon Slowly Turning, and received an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 2018. Her work is held in major collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum and Tate Britain. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to art.
6
She's taught at various institutions, including Kingston University and is considered to be a pioneering figure in British Black Arts Movement of the 1980s. She was the inaugural Stuart Hall Associate Fellow at the University of Sussex in 2018.
7
Pollard often combines text with images in her work and has experimented with alternative photographic processes.
8
Notable works by her include Pastoral Interlude (1987) - a series examining the presence of Black people in the English countryside, Seaside Series (1989) - exploring race and representation in British seaside towns and Self Evident (1995) - a project about Black British identity.
9
You can discover more about her and her work in this 2024 interview by the Hasselblad Foundation - the world's biggest photography prize, 2022 interview in The Guardian and 2022 interview with Tate.
10
You can hear Pollard in conversation with poet and activist Alexis Pauline Gumbs and The Box's art curator Terah Walkup on Saturday 23 November. You can book your tickets for this special event here.
Land Sea Sky: Ingrid Pollard, JMW Turner & Vija Celmins is on display at The Box until the end of Sunday 12 January. Opening hours are 10am-5pm Tuesday-Sunday and selected bank holidays. Admission is free.