HURVIN ANDERSON
b. 1965, United KingdomExamining concepts of memory, history, Blackness and a diasporic existence, Hurvin Anderson’s paintings traverse abstraction and figuration. His colour-drenched, culturally resonant artworks take the viewer from Caribbean landscapes to social spaces occupied by the UK’s Black communities.
Early Years
Hurvin Anderson was born in Handsworth, Birmingham, in 1965. He was the youngest of eight children and his parents had come to the UK from Jamaica as part of the Windrush cohort. While Anderson didn’t formally study art straightaway, he did paint murals around Birmingham. Aged 25, he enrolled at Birmingham Polytechnic on an illustration course but then swapped to fine art and went on to study at Wimbledon College of Art, gaining his BA in 1994 and the Royal College of Art (achieving his MA in 1998).
Hurvin Anderson: Artworks
Hurvin Anderson’s work considers diaspora and belonging, often featuring memories from his youth or family members. Often working from photographs, he revisits elements of images and occasionally creates new locations by layering elements of one landscape on to another, asking us to consider how reliable memory can be. His depictions of the Caribbean evolved when he spent an eight-week residency in Trinidad in 2002 and a trip to northern Jamaica in 2017. Including both abstract and figurative elements, his paintings use locations and scenes to discuss ideas of nationhood and identity—an example being his celebrated series of portraits of life in barbershops.
- Audition (1998), Anderson’s painting of a municipal swimming pool scene, sold for £7.4 million at Christie’s in London, five times its estimate. The large-scale canvas features figures huddled on a high diving board, while hints of the exterior landscape can be seen through the pool’s huge glass windows.
- Rose Avenue (Drawing) (2006) is a three-part acrylic drawing that “challenges notions of the Caribbean pastoral” in its multi-angled depiction of white-walled homes in leafy surroundings
- The Jamaican Hotel series, exhibited at Thomas Dane Gallery in 2021, focuses on an unfinished holiday resort where nature has taken over the abandoned buildings. The bright colours of the vegetation pop out against the whites and greys of the concrete.
- Passenger Opportunity (2024) is an enormous 16-panel acrylic-on-wood painting featuring vignettes around the idea of journeys and travel, raising questions of migration and the hopes surrounding travel.
Hurvin Anderson: Select Exhibitions
Select Solo Exhibitions
- Hurvin Anderson, Tate Britain, London (2026)
- Hurvin Anderson: Repeating Yourself, Michael Werner, New York NY (2025)
- Hurvin Anderson: Salon Paintings, The Hepworth Wakefield (2023) (and touring)
- Hurvin Anderson: Reverb, Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2021)
- Hurvin Anderson: Anywhere but Nowhere, The Arts Club of Chicago (2021)
- They Have a Mind of Their Own, Rat Hole Gallery, Tokyo (2019)
- Foreign Body, Michael Werner Gallery, New York City (2016)
- Hurvin Anderson: Dub Versions, New Art Exchange, Nottingham (2016)
- Hurvin Anderson: Backdrop, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2016)
- Hurvin Anderson: New Works, Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2013)
- Hurvin Anderson: reporting back, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2013)
- Hurvin Anderson: Subtitles, Michael Werner Gallery, New York City (2011)
- Peter’s Series 2007–2009, Studio Museum, Harlem, New York City (2009)
- Art Now: Hurvin Anderson, Tate Modern, London (2009)
- Hurvin Anderson, Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2008)
- Hurvin Anderson, Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco (2008)
- A View on the River Cobre, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London (2006)
- New Paintings, Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2005)
- The Lime, David Risley Gallery, London (2003)
- Hurvin Anderson, Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2003)
Select Group Exhibitions
- Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (2026)
- Push Me, Pull You, Thomas Dane Gallery, Naples (2025)
- Through The Seasons, Henie Onstad, Høvikodden (2025)
- Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2024)
- Like Paradise, Claridge’s Art Space, London (2023)
- Transforming Legacies, Black Cultural Archives, London (2022)
- Life Between Islands: Carribbean-British art 1950s–now, Tate Britain (2021) (and touring)
- British Art Show 9 (2021) (touring)
- Fragments of Epic Memory, Art Gallery of Ontario (2021)
- Duro Olowu: Seeing Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2020)
- Manifesto: Art x Agency, The Hirshorn Museum, Washington DC (2019)
- Get Up, Stand Up Now, Somerset House, London (2019)
- Turner Prize 2017, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull (2017)
- Jamaican Pulse: Art and Politics from Jamaica and the Diaspora, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol (2016)
- Four Corners of the World, Hite Collection, Seoul (2013)
- Flowers for Summer, Michael Werner Gallery, New York City (2011)
- Self-Consciousness, Veneklasen / Werner, Berlin (2010)
- Very Abstract and Hyper Figurative, Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2007)
- Crivelli’s Nail, Chapter Gallery, Cardiff (2006)
- Back to Paint, C & M Arts, New York City (2004)
- EastInternational, Norwich Gallery (2004)
- Telling Times, Leicester Museum and Art Gallery (2000)
Further Reading
- Artist profile page at Thomas Dane Gallery
- 2023 interview in the Guardian
- Hurvin Anderson’s Instagram
- 2022 studio video from Tate
- 2026 interview with Plaster magazine
Hurvin Anderson FAQs
Why does Hurvin Anderson paint barbershops?
Hurvin Anderson began his series of semi-abstract paintings of barbershops in 2006 after visiting a Jamaican barbershop in a converted attic in Birmingham and being struck by the number of mirrors and the reflections they created. “It’s an odd atmosphere to work in. To have so much reflection. To see yourself constantly,” he said in an interview in 2023. He has reworked the theme many times as a way of examining how painters can capture experiences and memories, and how abstraction can co-exist with figuration.
What materials and techniques does Hurvin Anderson use?
“I don’t have a strict process,” Hurvin Anderson has said, although he often creates paintings by beginning with acrylics, then using oils on top. He has said that he likes the “spontaneity” of acrylics and their quick-drying properties. Known for his use of colour, he has said he used to use turps to keep the oils “luminous” but changed his emphasis and experimented with surfaces instead. He often works from photographs and assembles his compositions on several sheets of paper.
What are Hurvin Anderson’s influences?
Hurvin Anderson is influenced by place, creating works that offer a response to experiences and locations that have shaped his life and artistic practice. Artistic influences include Michael Andrews, Diego Velázquez, Édouard Manet, Richard Diebenkorn and Kerry James Marshall.
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