Hurvin Anderson regards painting as his language: ‘I am not a writer; I felt like paint was a way I could discuss things’. Born in Britain to Jamaican parents, he explores his relationship to both cultures and the tensions rising through this duality. His painting is a ‘dialogue between these two territories’ – trying to get these two places to meet.’ Anderson’s subjects include facets of black British life, such as the now vanished barbershops – ‘complex and ambiguous places’ imbued with social history – that were havens for Caribbean migrants. Recently he has focused on equally ambiguous outdoor sites, featuring partially built hotels glimpsed among the exuberantly lush landscapes of Jamaica’s north coast.
Hurvin Anderson (born 1965, Birmingham) lives and works in London. Anderson studied at Wimbledon School of Art and the Royal College of Art, both London.
Hurvin Anderson, Is It OK To Be Black?, 2016 © Hurvin Anderson. All rights reserved DACS 2021. Courtesy the Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London