Divine Southgate-Smith

Divine Southgate-Smith has developed a practice comprising film, text, spoken word poetry, performance, installation, sculpture, furniture design, CGI animation, and 3D rendering. The work often references and questions articulations of black, queer, and female experience. She/They navigates speculative spaces where things are abstracted, contextualised, de-contextualised, voiced, or silenced. Questioning the traditional equation between sight and understanding - Southgate-Smith invites us to observe and examine visual representations of the future whilst in constant dialogue with the past. She/They touches on themes of oppression, stereotyping, intersectionality, empowerment, and joy.

Her/Their approach to art-making is trans-disciplinary and collaborative allowing her/them to explore complex narratives through various mediums and disciplines. Southgate-Smith's practice relies on research and intuition; hence, she/they turns to storytelling, music, imagination, play, community, and archive as sources of inspiration and creation.

Selected exhibitions include: Ways of Living 3.0, Arcadia Missa, London (2023); Feÿ Arts, Château du Feÿ, Villecien, France (2022); Royal Academy of the Arts, London, United Kingdom (2022); Galeria Foco, Lisbon, Portugal (2019); Saatchi Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2017). Permanent collections incude: The Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom, Casa Do Design, Porto, Portugal, Lexus Private collection, Brussels, Belgium.