National Galleries of Scotland

Alberta Whittle: create dangerously is an immersive exhibition which invites you to slow down and pause. At the heart of Alberta’s solo show is her generous spirit which promotes compassion and collective care as means of resisting racism and anti-Blackness.

In her works, Alberta addresses the brutality and harm caused by colonialism, the Transatlantic trade in enslaved people, and the ongoing climate crisis. Through richly symbolic artworks, she pulls apart the belief that ’racism and police brutality is [just] an English problem or an American problem’. Instead she underlines Scotland’s complicity in the structures of white supremacy. Often deeply personal, weaving stories of family and belonging, Alberta ultimately offers a message of hope, asking us to imagine a world outside of these damaging systems and ways of thinking.

This will be the largest showing of Alberta’s works to date, with sculptures, digital collages, watercolours and new paintings, made especially for the show, taking over the ground floor of Modern One. Alongside never-before-seen artworks, the exhibition offers you the opportunity to see Alberta’s extraordinary tapestry, Entanglement is more than blood, and film installation, Lagareh – The Last Born – which the artist presented at the Venice Biennale in 2022, commissioned by Scotland+Venice.

Alberta Whittle: create dangerously is a unique opportunity to experience the ambition and breadth of the Barbadian-Scottish artist’s career to date, and to consider Alberta’s call for us to ‘invest in love’.

Alberta Whittle: create dangerously is kindly supported by Baillie Gifford, Art Fund, National Galleries of Scotland Foundation, The African Arts Trust, The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow, and The Alberta Whittle Exhibition Supporters’ Circle: Lesley Knox, Shane Akeroyd, John Storey, Ebele Okobi, Vanessa Johnson-Burgess, and donors who wish to remain anonymous.

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