Talk #63

Michael Forbes

Michael Forbes lives and works in Nottingham and London. Forbes' practice explores contemporary racial politics, migration, blackness and whiteness in relation to universal debates on history and religion. He works with sculpture, installations, photography, digital media and animation. The above areas of interests are incorporated in all his work, but with different levels of focus for each body of work.

Forbes has exhibited nationally and internationally with exhibitions including; 2022 Blk This & Blk That (offered a solo exhibition), Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham. 2021 Untitled - Pop Up exhibition and residency at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (awarded in 2020, but delayed due to Covid 19). 2021 Cut & Mix: Visual Representations of Black British Masculine Identities, New Art Exchange, Nottingham. 2021 Space Lapse: RCA Sculpture 2020, Royal Sculpture Society, London, 2020 Tomorrow: London, White Cube Gallery. 2020 London Grads Now, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2020 Royal College of Art Degree Show Reformation at Yinka Shonibare’s Guest Projects, the Diaspora Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2017 and CPT: Time, History and Memory, Gallatin Galleries, New York.

Alongside his artistic practice, Forbes has curated many exhibitions and supports artists’ professional development. He played a leading role in developing New Art Exchange, Nottingham, and its early programme and is a founding member of Primary, a Nottingham arts organisation where he holds a studio and is Chair of the Board of Trustees. Forbes has an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art (2020) and BA in Photography from Nottingham Trent University.

More information at www.weareprimary.org/michael-forbes