UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 14 JULY 2023
The respected British artist Sonia Boyce OBE RA, whose work has been a regular fixture at Birmingham art galleries and spaces, is to receive an Honorary Doctorate from Birmingham City University (BCU).
The London-born creative of British-Afro-Caribbean heritage, who first studied art at Stourbridge College in 1980, is recognised for her influential contributions to the Black British art movement and her exploration of race, gender, and identity politics.
"I am delighted to be the recipient of such a huge honour,” said Boyce.
“Birmingham and the West Midlands hold special memories for me. I studied Fine Art at Stourbridge, and the region truly was the beginning of my artistic awakening."
Boyce gained prominence in the 1980s among a peer group that challenged the lack of representation and addressed issues of racism and cultural identity in the art world.
Her works incorporate performance, photography, and mixed media, including elements of collage and assemblage.
Since the 1990s, Boyce’s art practice has taken a significant multi-media and improvisational turn, focussed on collaboration, movement and sound.
Frequently mining popular culture, Boyce has explored dance, music, and archival footage, to reflect on the politics of cultural appropriation and the complexities of cultural heritage.
In 2022, Boyce was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the 59th Venice Biennale. In 2019, Boyce was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to the arts.
As well as being a practising artist she has taught in art colleges across the UK for nearly 40 years. As the Chair of Black Art & Design at University of the Arts London she led on a 3-year research project into Black Artists & Modernism, exploring the contribution of overlooked artists of African and Asian descent to the story of Modern British art, which led to a BBC documentary Whoever Heard of a Black Artist? Britain’s Hidden Art History (2018).
Current and recent exhibitions include Feeling Her Way, Leeds Art Gallery and Turner Contemporary, Margate (2023); The Disorderly, Apalazzo Gallery, Brescia (2022); Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s - Now, Tate Britain, London (2021); In the Castle of My Skin, Eastside Projects, Birmingham (2020) and Middlesborough Museum of Art (2021).
Acclaimed Black British photographer Pogus Caesar, who photographed several portraits of Boyce, some of which now form part of the National Portrait Gallery’s collection, said: “It’s great that Sonia is receiving this accolade. She is a stalwart in the Black British arts movement, an incredible supporter of women in art, a giant whose work has stepped over international borders and whose footsteps create inspiration for others in the future. Huge congratulations to Sonia.”
BCU Summer Graduations take place at Birmingham Symphony Hall between Monday 24 to Friday 28 July.
Students from across all four BCU faculties – Arts, Design and Media; Business, Law, and Social Sciences; Computing, Engineering, and the Built Environment; and Health, Education, and Life Sciences will take to the stage to receive their awards.