DANIELLE BRATHWAITE-SHIRLEY

Brathwaite-Shirley has been the subject of numerous important institutional shows. In 2025, for example, the Serpentine Gallery in London dedicated a major solo exhibition to her work.

Early Years and Background

Born in London in 1995, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley graduated from Slade School of Fine Art in 2019. Now based between Berlin and London, Brathwaite-Shirley’s practice draws from a personal history as a Black trans person while collaborating with Black trans coders, artists, and creative technologists. Her projects channel lived experience—both individual and collective—into interactive archives and speculative digital worlds.

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley Artworks

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley is a leading voice in art, technology, and activism, often working through gaming and digital interfaces to interrogate systems of power, visibility, and erasure. Her works actively engage audiences as participants, demanding not just attention but ethical involvement in the stories of Black trans lives.

Seminal Works and Developments

• We Are Here Because of Those That Are Not (2020–): A participatory web-based game and installation, archiving Black trans lives via a dynamic, identity-dependent player journey.
• She Keeps Me Damn Alive (2021): An immersive point-and-shoot digital game exploring agency, community care, and the consequences of violence, featuring a custom bubblegum-pink arcade controller.
• GET HOME SAFE (2022): Solo exhibition at David Kordansky Gallery, blending digital interaction and sound to foreground Black trans safety and solidarity.
• THE REBIRTHING ROOM (2024): Installation and live event at Studio Voltaire, London, thematising transformation, sanctuary, and collective voice.
• THE DELUSION (2025): Major Serpentine North Gallery commission—a multiplayer, immersive video game and installation using gaming, open-source tech, and interactive storytelling to probe division, censorship, and reconnection.

Select Awards and Accolades

• Celebrate in a major solo exhibition at Serpentine Galleries (2025)
• Named one of Phaidon’s 100 Future Art Superstars (2022)
• Selected for Apollo magazine’s 40 Under 40: Art & Tech (2021)
• Numerous institutional commissions at the intersection of art and technology

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Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley Exhibitions

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley has exhibited internationally, with innovative institutional presentations across Europe, the UK, and the US.

Select Solo Exhibitions

• THE DELUSION, Serpentine North, London (2025)
• THE REBIRTHING ROOM, Studio Voltaire, London (2024)
• Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (2024)
• LAS Foundation, Berlin (2024)
• GET HOME SAFE, David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles (2022)
• She Keeps Me Damn Alive, Arebyte Gallery, London (2021)
• We Are Here Because of Those That Are Not, Science Gallery, London (2020)
• Re$$urection Lands, Les Urbaines, Lausanne (2019)

Select Group Exhibitions

• Julia Stoschek Foundation, Düsseldorf (2022)
• Albright Knox Gallery, New York (2021)
• Peer to Peer: UK/HK, U.K./Hong Kong (2020)
• Barbican, London (2018)

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Website and Instagram

• Website: daniellebrathwaiteshirley.com
• Instagram: @daniellebrathwaiteshirleyinstagram

More Reading

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley’s work has been featured in Ocula Magazine and institutional advisory pieces. Read more about her art on Ocula, including exhibition reviews and artist interviews.

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley FAQs

Ocula | 2025