New Tate Liverpool Kicks Things off with a Look Back at Chila Kumari Singh Burman

Chila Kumari Singh Burman b. 1957, United Kingdom Follow +

After four years of being closed for refurbishment, the doors of Tate Liverpool will swing open once more in 2027.

And to kick things off anew, the gallery will play host to the first retrospective of the Liverpool-born artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman.

U.K. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy shared the news on a trip to Delhi last week, stating ‘the exhibition will honour one of Britain's most innovative artists and marks an exciting new chapter for Tate Liverpool as it transforms into a modern day museum at the heart of the city.’

With a practice inspired by her working class and Punjabi background, Burman was a significant figure of the Black British Arts movement in the 1980s, alongside major figures like Lubaina Himid, Sonia Boyce, and Sutapa Biswas.

Her bold works merge influences from traditional and popular Indian culture, self-portraiture, and musical sources from punk and reggae to Bollywood sounds.

Burman’s technicolour installation Remembering a Brave New World for Tate Britain’s façade notably brought light to London during the 2020 pandemic. In 2022, Burman was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire for her contributions to the arts.

Nandy said Burman’s artistic vision has already ‘brightened our cities and lifted spirits during difficult times’.

Tate Liverpool director Helen Legg said Burman, whose exuberant Pop art and punk-inspired works have investigated representation, gender, and identity with flair for five decades, had been on their radar for some time: 

‘[Burman] was always the artist we wanted to show on reopening, as part of a celebration of the rich culture of the North,’ she said.

Burman's exhibition will be the first in the museum’s newly transformed home, following a £30 million revamp aimed at giving the Grade II-listed dockside building a more inviting appearance, with an open-plan ground floor, wider passageways and uncovered windows looking out onto the Mersey.

The museum expected some 200,000 visitors in its first year—a number that ballooned to 700,0000 in recent years, and an anticipated one million for its reopening in spring 2027. —[O]

Main image: Preliminary designs for Tate Liverpool. © 6a architects. Courtesy Tate. Photo: Hartley Bridge.