at home: Artists in Conversation | Zineb Sedira and Alberta Whittle

Artists Zineb Sedira and Alberta Whittle in conversation with Courtney J. Martin, Paul Mellon Director, Yale Center for British Art

About Zineb Sedira

Sedira was born in 1963 in Paris to Algerian parents who moved to France shortly after the Algerian War (1954–1962). She relocated to London in 1986, received a degree in fine arts from Central Saint Martins College of Art in 1995, and an MFA in media from the Slade School of Fine Art in 1997. Sedira pursued research in photography at the Royal College of Art for five years. Her practice is rooted in her combined French, Algerian, and British backgrounds and she draws on her experiences to examine how culture is transmitted or lost through the movement of people. Sedira uses film, installation, photography, and video to explore displacement, especially regarding the experiences of women. In 2011, she founded aria (Artist Residency in Algeria), a program to support the development of contemporary art and foster cross-cultural exchanges and collaborations. Sedira’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions around the world and is in major collections including the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh; Blaffer Art Museum, Houston; Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris. Sedira represented France at the Fifty-ninth Venice Biennale in 2022. She divides her time between London, Paris, and Algiers.

About Alberta Whittle

Born in 1980 in Barbados, Whittle is a Barbadian-Scottish artist who moved to Birmingham, England, as a teenager, and later to Scotland. She earned an MFA from the Glasgow School of Art in 2011. She is a PhD candidate at Edinburgh College of Art and is a research associate at the University of Johannesburg. Her creative practice is motivated by her interest in using self-compassion and collective care as key methods in battling anti-Blackness. She choreographs interactive installations, using film, sculpture, and performance as site-specific artworks in public and private spaces. Her work questions how history and society are constructed in the Western world and her practice takes on the legacies of colonialism and slavery. Her work is also concerned with environmental issues and climate change. Whittle has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions around the world and her work is held in private collections and by the UK Government Art Collections, the Scottish National Gallery, Glasgow Museums, and the Contemporary Art Research Collection at Edinburgh College of Art, to name a few. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Margaret Tait Award, Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award, and the Frieze Artist Award. She received a Turner Prize bursary award in 2020. In 2022, Whittle represented Scotland at the Fifty-ninth Venice Biennale. Whittle has also written for MAP magazine and the academic journals Visual Culture in Britain, Visual Studies, Art South Africa, and Critical Arts. She lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland.

at home: Artists in Conversation

Join us for lively and inspiring conversations with some of today’s most notable artists. at home: Artists in Conversation brings together curators and artists to discuss various artistic practices and insights into their work.