I am a transdisciplinary artist working between performance, painting, sculpture, sound, video, and installation. My work is rooted in cultural research, drawing from literature, music, and art, as well as my own personal experiences of being a member of the queer Black Afro-Caribbean diaspora living in London. Alongside my artistic practice I take on design commissions, lecture at London College of Communication (UAL) and am a mentor at the Royal College of Art.


Through my practice I’m acknowledging and confronting experiences of violence, aggression, and misalignment through abstract forms and sounds, verbal language and my body. I embrace reflection, transition and movement as powerful and disruptive states which can provoke critical dialogues. Within my work I’m actively challenging prevailing narratives and questioning our position within the wider socio political landscape by centering embodied knowledge and intuition above systematic reasoning. Often I’m asking the question ‘how does it feel?’. Through my practice I am ultimately forging a deeper understanding of my own identity and my hopes for the future.


I graduated Cum Laude from the Design Academy Eindhoven (Media and Culture), and more recently with an MA from the Royal College of Art (Contemporary Art Practice). I am the 2023 Research and Interpretation Artist in Residence at Tate and a New Contemporaries 2023 Artist.


Notable exhibitions include live performances at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, as well as exhibiting and performing in multiple institutions across London, including HOME by Ronan Mckenzie, Soho House, Somerset House, Black Cultural Archives, the V&A and Tate Britain.




Find me on 
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contact@joshwoolford.co.uk


Clients / Commissions

Tate
Gucci
V&A
Talawa Theatre
Black Cultural Archives
Sainsbury Centre [Harold Offeh]
A---Z
LAS Berlin
TAWIAH
HOME by Ronan Mckenzie
Burberry
New Art Exchange
Healing Justice Ldn
Liberty Rose
Studio Seventy
LN-CC
Wai Kin Sin
BBZ
Serpentine Galleries
Mall Galleries
Prim.Black
UY Studio
Karma She
Konstnärskapet
Nuda
Van Abbemuseum
san mei gallery
LUX

Exhibitions / Performances

2024 -

Assembly, Somerset House / Live performance collaboration with Nkisi

New Contemporaries 2023. Camden Art Centre, London / Video Piece and Live Performance

What No Fear Looks Like curated by Wa-Ju. Shoreditch Arts Club, London / Video Piece and Live Performance

2023 -

Airspace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent / Live Durational Performance

Jewellers, Morecambe / Live Performance

New Contemporaries 2023. The Grundy, Blackpool / Video Piece

Drifts Festival 2023, Helsinki / Live Performance

Gucci, New Bond Street, London / Video Piece

Censored Pleasures & Closeted Desires. Fringe! x The Place, London / Live Performance Collaboration with Chadd Curry / Dahc Dermur

Always Coming Home curated by Anne Duffau (A---Z) at Iklectik, London / Live Performance

Tate Late: Desire, Culture and History. Tate Britain, London / Live Performance

Disagreements as Domains of Nausea and Elation. Austrian Cultural Forum, London / Live Performance

Queer & Now at Tate Britain, London / Live Performance & Soundscape

Peckham24 by Tom Lovelace at Copeland Park, London / Live Performance Collaboration with Anna-Lena Krause

You Make Me Feel by Anne Duffau (A---Z) at Somerset House, London / Live Performance

HOME x V&A Late, London / Live Durational Performance

The Takeover by Anticlone Gallery at Newington Green Meeting House, London / Sculptures and Live Performance

2022 -

Of Mythic Worlds by Harold Offeh at the Sainsbury Centre, Norwich / Video and Sound piece

Transforming Legacies by Pacheanne Anderson at Black Cultural Archives, London / Painting and Live Performance

Alter/self by Anne Duffau (A---Z) at PAF, Olomouc / Video piece in collaboration with Ijeoma Uzoukwu

PRIM x NOW Later: It Started With We at NOW Gallery, London / Production, Lighting and Sound

Children of the Diasporas by Pacheanne Anderson - part of 1-54 Art Fair's 10th anniversary London Edition at Somerset House, London / Painting

The Diaspora by Anticlone Gallery at FARMTV/William Blake house, London / Painting

144 by Ijeoma Uzoukwu at Reference Point, London / Live performance

Art In* by Pacheanne Anderson, Produced by Brian Maina at Soho House White City, London / Installation and Live performance

Diasporas Now invited by Decolonise Art History at Gallerie V, Cambridge / Live performance

HOME by Ronan Mckenzie, London / Installation, video and live performance


2021 -

Play and the Post Peak by Jerome Ince-Mitchell at The Factory Project, London / Installation, video and live performance

Mōōvement by Ijeoma Uzoukwu at Harlesdon High School, London / Live performance

Diasporas Now, Online / Performance video with Ijeoma Uzoukwu


2017 - 2020 -

Pending at san mei gallery, London / Sculpture

5hrs by Emily Moore at Sook Spaces, London / Performance video

Black History Online at Royal College of Art, London / Performance video

Name Drop by Jason Danino-Holt at Habait Theatre, Tel Aviv / Live Performance

Queering Session #5 by Olle Lundin at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven / Live Performance

Residencies and Awards

2023/24 -

2023/24 Research & Interpretation Artist in Residence at Tate, London

New Contemporaries Artist 2023


Workshops / Talks / Writing

2024 -

Conch, South London Gallery curated by Hannah Gedded / Artist presentation

Contemporary Art Practice, Royal College of Art / Artist presentation

2023 -

Associate Lecturer on Design for Art Direction at UAL London College of Communication (ongoing)

2021 -


Letter to my Little Queer Self / Writing comission

2020 -


Phantasy Saturday School by EAST x 198 Contemporary  / Lecturer

Apple Store, Covent Garden, London / Workshop leader


Links / features

‘London’s new art power list’ / ES Magazine

‘specialists + drybabe w/ josh woolford - 18.01.2023 - foundation fm’ / foundation fm music mix

‘CHILDREN OF THE DIASPORA: Where are we now?’ / Nataal article

‘Powered by Collectivity: Diasporas Now’ / Asia Art Pacific article

‘The alternative graduate show liberating black, queer artists’ / Dazed photography