Harold Offeh is an artist working in a range of media including performance, video, photography, learning and social arts practice. He discusses and shares examples of how uses performance and play as research tools to explore locations, embodying historical narratives and engaging contemporary audiences.
Harold Offeh is an artist working in a range of media including performance, video, photography, learning and social arts practice. He discusses and shares examples of how uses performance and play as research tools to explore locations, embodying historical narratives and engaging contemporary audiences.
Through talks and conversational presentations at Axis in 2023, Harold will discuss recent projects like his solo exhibition We Came Here (2022) staged at Van Gogh House London in Brixton. Harold used performative actions and archival research to explore the social, historical and cultural context of Vincent Van Gogh's former home in London. In turn, he will examine projects where he's responded and reacted, through commissions and open calls to opportunities to make work in response to histories and specific spaces.
Harold will try to demystify the process of developing artist's commissions and working in public art and social art contexts. He'll look at the development of projects from the point of responding to a brief, developing a proposal and working through production and delivery of commission outcomes. The talk will offer practical advice and will be useful for recent graduates, people who are interested or have some experience if working on public and social arts commissions.
Offeh has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally including Tate Britain and Tate Modern, South London Gallery, Turf Projects, London, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, Wysing Art Centre, Studio Museum Harlem, New York, MAC VAL, France, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Denmark and Art Tower Mito, Japan.
He studied Critical Fine Art Practice at The University of Brighton, MA Fine Art Photography at the Royal College of Art and recently completed a PhD by practice exploring the activation of Black Album covers through durational performance. He lives in Cambridge and works in London, UK. He previously held the role of Reader in Fine Art at Leeds Beckett University and was a visiting tutor at Goldsmiths College and The Slade School of Art, UCL, London. He is currently a tutor in MA Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art.
Solo Exhibitions/Projects
2022 WE CAME HERE, Van Gogh House, London, UK
2022 HULL TELEVISION WORKSHOP, Humber Street Gallery, Hull, UK
2019 CROYDON PLAYS ITSELF, Turf Projects, London, UK
2016 CHOREOGRAPH ME, Iniva London Art Fair, London, UK
2015 COVERS PERFOMANCE, MAC Birmingham, UK
2014 FRESHEN UP, LOOP Festival, Estudio Nomada, Barcelona, Spain
2014 HAIROGRAPHY, Late at Tate Britain, London, UK
2013–2014 LABRINYTH TRANSPORTER, Art on the Underground, London UK
2013 PINATOPIA & MOUNT FOLLY, Pavilion, Temple Newsam, Leeds UK
2013 CALL AND RESPONSE DINNER, Tate Modern, London, UK
2011 MAMMY AT THE ROSE OF TRALEE, Siamsa Tire, Tralee, Ireland
2010 FUTURAMA, Peckham Space, London UK
2010 DEAD SEASON LIVE ART, Substation Project Space, Margate UK
2008 BEING MAMMY, Kulturhuset, Stockholm Sweden
Group Exhibitions/ Performances (selected)
2022 HOSPITAL ROOMS: LIKE THERE IS HOPE AND I CAN DREAM OF ANOTHER WORLD, Hauser & Wirth, London, UK
2022 VERY PRIVATE? Charleston, UK
2022 ME, MYSELF AND I: ARTIST'S SELF PORTRAITS, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, UK
2022 BODIES IN MOTION, Konsthall C, Stockholm, Sweden
2021 SELF-ADDRESSED, Jeffrey Deitrich Gallery, LA, USA
2021 RADICAL REEL, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, UK
2020 UNTITLED: ART ON THE CONDITIONS OF OUR TIME, Kettles Yard, Cambridge, UK
2020 ON HAPPINESS, Wellcome Collection, London, UK
2020 BOLD TENDENCIES, Peckham, London, UK
2020 IN THE CASTLE OF MY SKIN, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK
2020 HOSPITAL ROOMS, South London Gallery, UK
2019 PUBLICNESS OF THE ART CENTER. Art Tower Mito, Mito, Japan
2019 KABARET DADA, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway
2019 ALL HIS GHOSTS MUST DO MY BIDDING, Wysing Art Centre, UK
2018 NUIT BLANCHE: TORONTO 2018, Toronto, Canada
2018 KNOCK KNOCK: Humour in Contemporary Art, South London Gallery
2018 FACULTY OF ACTION, Fargfabriken, Stockholm, Sweden
2018 FLAM: LIVE ART FESTIVAL. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2018 QUEER CITY PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL. Regina, Canada
2018 MATERIAL EXPERIMENTS, The Tetley. Leeds, UK
2018 PERFORMANCE LAB III, Publics. Helsinki. Finland
2018 ACTIONS: THE IMAGE OF THE WORLD CAN BE DIFFERENT, Kettles Yard, Cambridge,
2018 ELEPHANT ATLAS, LCC, LONDON, UK
2018 MORE THAN AN AVALANCHE, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge
2017 QUEER ART HERE AND NOW, Tate Britain, UK
2017 BOITE EN VALISE, Portsmouth, UK, Venice, Italy and Syracuse, USA
2017 TOUS, DES SANGS-MÊLÉS, Museum of Contemporary Art in Val de Marne, France
2017 UNTITLED: ART ON THE CONDITIONS OF OUR TIME, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK
2016 WE ARE THE EPI CENTER, P! Gallery, New York City, USA
2016 WE ARE THE CENTER FOR CURATORIAL STUDIES, Bard College, Center for Curatorial Studies, New York, USA
2016 AN IMAGE OF OUR OWN MAKING, Museet for Samtidkunst, Roskilde, Denmark
2016 GRACE JONES PROJECT, Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, USA
2015 JUST LIKE A WOMEN, Abrons Arts Center, NY USA. Chelsea Theatre, London, UK
2013–2014 THE SHADOWS TOOK SHAPE, The Studio Museum, Harlem, NYC, USA
2013 Ry Rocklen’s NIGHT COURT, Miami Art Basel, Miami, USA
2013 BIOPIC, Maria Stenfors Gallery, London, UK
2013 THE TRANSITION PROJECT, Yapi Kredi Kültür Merkezi, Istanbul, Turkey
2012 GLAMOURIE, Project Space Leeds, Leeds, UK (Jan-March)
2012 GARDEN OF REASON COMMISSION, Ham House, Richmond, UK (Apr-Sept) Curatorial Projects
2018 CAMBRIDGE BETTERMENT SOCIETY, Frank Lee Centre, Cambridge, UK
2018 HOUSE TAKEN OVER PUBLICATION, BalinHouseProjects, London, UK
2017 PERFORMANCE AND UNCERTAINTY SYMPOSIUM, Tetley, Leeds and ICA, London
2016 PECKHAM PRESS HOUSE, Peckham Platform, London, UK
2015 CUTTING SHAPES, Site Gallery, Sheffield, UK
2015 THE VARITIES, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, UK
2015 RADIOCITY, Tate Britain Learning Gallery, London, UK
2013 THE MOTHERSHIP COLLECTIVE, Latitude Festival, Suffolk, UK
2011 HAIROGRAPHY, Umbrella Project Space, Leeds, UK
2010 MASHUP Variety Night. ICA, London, UK
2009 DOWN AT THE BAMBOO CLUB, Picture This atelier, Bristol, UK
2008 DAMN, I WISH I’ D DONE THAT! Screening at 176 Project Space, London, UK
2007 EMERGENCY 3, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, UK (Selector)
2006 THE MOTHERSHIP COLLECTIVE, South London Gallery, London, UK
Publications (selected)
2019 HOUSE TAKEN OVER PUBLICATION, BalinHouseProjects, London, UK
2018 TOUS, DES SANGS-MÊLÉS, Museum of Contemporary Art in Val de Marne, France
2018 ACTIONS: THE IMAGE OF THE WORLD CAN BE DIFFERENT, Kettles Yard, Cambridge, UK
2017 IN SITE OF CONVERSATION: On Learning with Art, Audiences and Artists. Tate Publishing. Ed. Leanne Turvey, Alice Walton and Eileen Daly
2017 UNTITLED: ART ON THE CONDITIONS OF OUR TIME, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK. Ed. Paul Goodwin, Hansi Momodu-Gordon
2016 PLAYING UP, A LIVE ART GAME FOR KIDS AND ADULTS. Sibylle Peters, LADA and Tate publishing
2016 AN AGE OF OUR OWN MAKING, Edited Solvej Helweg Ovesen and Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, The Green Box, Denmark
Awards
2019 Paul Hamlyn Visual Arts Award Recipient
2018 Arts Foundation Nominee
2006 Decibel Artists Award Winner
2003 Arts Council England, Grants for Arts Individuals