Sonia Boyce

Sonia Boyce (DBE, RA) is an interdisciplinary artist working across film, drawing, photography, print, sound, and installation. In 2022, she presented FEELING HER WAY, a major commission for the British Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition–La Biennale di Venezia for which she was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. Boyce came to prominence in the early 1980s as a key figure in the burgeoning Black British Arts Movement with figurative pastel drawings and photo collages that addressed issues of race and gender in Britain. Since the 1990s, however, Boyce has shifted significantly to embrace a wider social practice that invites improvisation, collaboration, movement, and sound with other people. In 2016, Boyce was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in London and in 2023, she was elected as an Honorary Fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Science in Boston. In 2014, she became a Professor at University of the Arts London, where she holds the inaugural Chair in Black Art & Design. In the 2024 King’s New Year Honour’s List, Boyce was awarded a Damehood. Her works are held in many UK and international museum collections including TATE, London; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Arts Council Collection of England, London; British Council, London; Government Art Collection, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington; Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP), Paris; and Barbados Museum and Historical Society, Barbados.