Joshua Woolford (@jshwlfrd) About Index
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About

Joshua Woolford is a transdisciplinary artist working across performance, sound, video, and installation. Joshua’s work is grounded in cultural research and their personal experiences of being a member of the queer Black Afro-Caribbean diaspora living in England. Through their practice, Joshua acknowledges and confronts experiences of violence, aggression, and misalignment prevalent within our socio-political landscapes by centering embodied knowledge, the ‘unseen’ and intuition as powerful and disruptive states which provoke critical dialogues.

Woolford graduated with an MA from the Royal College of Art (Contemporary Art Practice) and Cum Laude from the Design Academy Eindhoven (Media and Culture) and is currently a LAHP funded PhD candidate across Slade and the Royal College of Art with a project exploring anticapitalist and anticolonial resistance and performance. They were the 2023-24 Interpretation Artist in Residence at Tate and a New Contemporaries 2023 Artist. In 2024 Joshua was the recipient of an Arts Council DYCP grant, and the a-n Artists Bursary. 

Notable exhibitions include live performances at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, as and exhibitions and performances at various institutions across London, such as HOME by Ronan Mckenzie, Somerset House, Black Cultural Archives, the V&A, Gucci flagship store, Camden Art Centre and Tate Britain.

In addition to their artistic practice, Joshua lectures at UAL (London College of Communication & Central Saint Martins) and the Royal College of Art (School of Architecture) and takes on design commissions. 

contact@joshwoolford.co.uk



Exhibitions / Performances / Commissions

    [ 2025 ]

    Always Coming Home,
    Corsica Studios, London / Live performance collabration with Vivienne Griffin

    Creamcake 3hd,
    Haus Der Visionäre, Berlin / Live performance and Installation

    CIRCA Art Prize
    / Moving Image

    Dream Theory,
    44Møen, Denmark / Live performance and Installation collaboration with Nkisi

    London Open Live,
    Whitechapel, London / Live performance and Installation

    Speaking Futures,
    ICA, London / Live performance and wip presentation, curated by Diasporas Now

    wip Exhibition,
    Alice Yard, Trinidad / Installation. photography, painting, video and sound

    [ 2024 ]

    Rukus Live!
    Somerset House / Live Performance collaboration with Sippin’ T

    THE ELEVEN by FKA Twigs.
    Sothebys / Live durational performance

    Always Coming Home
    curated by A---Z (Anne Duffau). Matt’s Gallery / Live Performance collaboration with Vivienne Griffin

    zing, vecht, huil, bid, lach, werk en bewonder (Sing, fight, cry, pray, laugh, work and admire).
    De Uitkijk, Amsterdam / A collaborative video project of Tia Campbell, Joshua Fay, Sin Wai Kin, Shuang Li, Sophia Al-Maria, Ruoru Mou, Lydia Ourahmane, Martine Syms, Ryan Trecartin and Joshua Woolford, created during Sophia Al-Maria’s residency for the Mondriaan Prize 2023

    peacefully if we can, forcibly if we must.
    Enigma of Arrival curated by Royal College of Art CCA / Video Piece

    New Dialogues with Sound.
    Tate Britain / Presentation, Live Performance, Curation

    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

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

Residencies & Awards

    [ 2025 ]

    CIRCA Art Prize finalist

    LCC Design School Deans Award, 2025

    Alice Yard Artist Residency, Trinidad. April 2025

    [ 2024 ]


    a-n 2025 Artist Bursary

    Arts Council England DYCP grant


    2023/24 Research & Interpretation Artist in Residence at Tate Britain

    [ 2019 - 2023 ]

    New Contemporaries Artist, 2023

    RCA Sir Frank Bowling Scholarship, 2022

    Burberry Design Scholarship, Royal College of Art, 2019 - 2022


Interviews & Features

    AnOther MagazineAnOther Thing I Wanted to Tell You

    a-n A Q&A with Joshua Woolford: “All of my projects are informed by my experiences”

    The Standard: London’s new art power list

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

Radio
      Nkisi invites Joshua Woolford - 27.08.2025 - NTS Radio

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



        Workshops, Talks & Writing

            [ 2025 ]

            Central Media Studies at Royal College of Art, School of Architecture / Associate Lecturer

            Design for Art Direction and Diploma for Professional Studies at UAL London College of Communication / Associate Lecturer

            Fashion Communication Summer School at UAL Central Saint Martins / Visiting Lecturer


            [ 2024 ]

            Creative Storytellers Club, PRIM x Tate Britain workshop series / Producer & Facilitator

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

            Contemporary Art Practice,
            Royal College of Art / Artist presentation

            [ 2023 ]

            Design for Art Direction & Diploma for Professional Studies at UAL London College of Communication /Associate Lecturer, 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