Harold Offeh

Harold Offeh was born in Ghana in 1977. He studied Fine Art at Brighton University and Fine Art Photography at the Royal College of Art. His videos and performances question notions of representation and identity, drawing on familiar cultural references in film, song and art. He has shown widely both in Britain and abroad; including East International, Norwich; Ghosting, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth; Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham and Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff; Espaco Bananeiras, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Metropolis Rise, CQL Design Center, Shanghai, China. His recent curatorial projects includes The Mothership Collective for the South London Gallery. He lives and works in London and is currently an Artsadmin associate artist.

Harold Offeh is an artist working in a range of media including performance, video, photography, learning and social arts practice. Offeh is interested in the space created by the inhabiting or embodying of histories. He employs humour as a means to confront the viewer with historical narratives and contemporary culture. He 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,

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.

Dr Harold Offeh (born 1977 in Accra, Ghana, lives and works in Cambridge) makes videos and performances which question notions of representation and identity, drawing on familiar cultural references in film, song and art. The influence and effect of film and television culture is evident both in the form and the content of his work, which often challenges assumptions around race and class using playful humour and a deceptively light touch. Recently his work has moved towards collaborative projects and curatorial works with multiple artists and groups of participants. Offeh is tutor in MA Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art and visiting lecturer in print at the Royal College of Art.

Offeh appeared in a-n Magazine, December 2004, p12 in an announcement of his solo exhibition at Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth and in September 2006 as a recipient of that year’s deciBel Award. In July 2008 he featured in a report about Peckham Space and its socially-engaged and participatory programme. His work Peckham TV was its inaugural commission, made in collaboration with collective The People Speak. The article describes Offeh’s work as addressing ‘issues of cooperation, communication and participation through a range of strategies including found footage, interactive media, site-specific performance and video. His recent curatorial project, The Mothership Collective, explored the theme of Afro-futurism through collective engagement with other artists.’

Offeh also appeared in a-n in November 2019 in an article announcing him as one of the recipients of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Awards for Artists that year.

Offeh is interested in the space created by the inhabiting or embodying of histories. He employs humour as a means to confront the viewer with historical narratives and contemporary culture. In 2020, he completed a PhD by practice exploring the activation of Black Album covers through durational performance.

Who is the biggest influence on your life?

Oh, my God. That is a huge question! I should say my mother, which is partly true. At the moment it’s definitely Grace Jones – she’s my art mother.

Born in Accra, Ghana, Harold Offeh grew up in London. He studied Critical Fine Art Practice at the University of Brighton (1996–99), Fine Art Photography at the Royal College of Art (1999–2001), and completed a PhD by practice at Leeds Beckett University (2014-20). He lives in Cambridge and teaches at art colleges in London and Leeds. His first solo exhibition was at the Kulturhuset, Stockholm (2008) and he has since exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, including at: Studio Museum Harlem, New York (2013); Tate Britain (2014, 2017) and Tate Modern (2013); Museet for Samtidkunst, Roskilde, Denmark (2016); Museum of Contemporary Art, Val de Marne, France (2017); South London Gallery (2018, 2020); Kettle's Yard, Cambridge (2018); and Art Tower Mito, Japan (2019). ‘Hail the New Prophets’ will see Offeh realise his first major public sculpture as part of the Bold Tendencies exhibition in Peckham, London (2021). Offeh was the recipient of the 2019 Paul Hamlyn Visual Arts Award.

Recent projects include performances at Publics, a contemporary art space in Helsinki, Finland and The Real Thing: Towards a Live Authentic Archive as part of Material Experiments at The Tetley in Leeds, UK. In 2019, he was artist in residence at the Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, Japan and he had a solo exhibition at Turf Projects in Croydon, London. In 2020, Offeh will present a new film as part of the group exhibition Untitled … at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge. The film is based on a 12-hour live event Offeh produced called Down at the Twilight Zone, marking queer experiences of nightlife in Toronto, Canada. He’s currently working on a commission for the Wellcome Collection examining historical links between social dance, protest and happiness.

Education

2014–2020 PHD BY PRACTICE IN FINE ART, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK

1999–2001 MA (RCA) FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY, Royal College of Art, London, UK

1996–1999 BA HONS CRITICAL FINE ART PRACTICE (1st Class), University of Brighton, Brighton, UK

2016 HIGHER EDUCATION ACADEMY FELLOW

Professional Teaching History

2022— Tutor in MA Contemporary Art Practice at Royal College of Art, London, UK

2018–2022 Visiting Lecturer in Contemporary Art Practice MA at Royal College of Art, London, UK

2018– Visiting Lecturer in Fine Art, MFA Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK

2017– Visiting Lecturer in Fine Art, Central St Martins, UAL, London, UK

2017– Visiting Lecturer Chelsea College of Art, UAL, London, UK

2017– Visiting Lecturer Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK

2017– Visiting Lecturer, Slade School of Art, UCL, London, UK

2016 Visiting Lecturer Center for Curatorial Studies. Bard College, USA

2016–2020 Visiting Lecturer Royal Academy Schools. London, UK

2010–2014 Visiting Lecturer Arts University, Bournemouth, UK

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Offeh has exhibited widely including at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, South London Gallery, Kettle’s Yard, Wysing Art Centre, Studio Museum Harlem, MAC VAL, France, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Denmark and Art Tower Mito, Japan. He lives and works in Cambridge and London. Offeh is a Tutor in Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art. In 2019, he was a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists, the largest award of its kind in the UK.

Current and Upcoming Projects

2023

17th March - 27th August 2023

Finding Family @ Foundling Museum, London

27th May - 19th November 2023

Hello Happiness! @ Deutsches Hygiene Museum

22nd July - 29th October 2023

Boundary Encounters @ Modern Art Oxford

27th August 2:30 - 4pm

Let's Talk About Chemsex panel discussion @ Manchester Art Gallery

with Harold Offeh and Duncan Craig OBE, CEO of We Are Survivors