Hettie Innis in her studio, 2023. | Courtesy Peter Mallett
GRIMM, AN INTERNATIONAL GALLERY with locations in Amsterdam, London, and New York City, now represents Hettie Inniss (b. 1999). The British Caribbean artist lives and works in London. Paintings by Inniss are featured in “The Painted Room,” a group exhibition curated by Caroline Walker that is on view at GRIMM Amsterdam, through Dec. 22. The gallery will host its first exhibition dedicated to Inniss in London in May 2024.
Inniss’s inimitable approach to exploring identity and memory often results in images of multidimensional and multi-sensory interiors or unknown spaces. Focusing on perspective, her abstracted paintings are infused with intense, saturated color and the illuminating and shadow effects of light.
“I’m delighted to welcome Hettie to the gallery programme,” gallery founder Jorg Grimm said. “Her work displays a sensitivity and nuance that marks her out as an exciting and singular artist, seeking to make the invisible visible, and to render physical sensation in pigment. We look forward to the beginning of a new chapter for Hettie, and to introducing her work in her first UK solo show in London next May.”
“”Her work displays a sensitivity and nuance that marks her out as an exciting and singular artist, seeking to make the invisible visible, and to render physical sensation in pigment.” — Gallery Founder Jorge Grimm
HETTIE INNISS, “Hiding From the Rain,” 2023 (oil, oil stick, sand and pencil on canvas, 200 x 160 cm / 78 3/4 x 63 inches). | © Hettie Inniss, Courtesy the artist and GRIMM
Inniss was born in London. She attended the UK’s University of Leeds, where she earned an undergraduate degree in art and design (2022). The artist also holds an MA degree in fine art (Painting) from the Royal College of Art in London (2023), where she was the recipient of the RCA Frank Bowling Black Student Scholarship.
In October, Inniss was commissioned by Tate Collective to make an artwork inspired by an object from the Tate’s collection. (Tate Collective is a program designed to attract and engage audiences aged 16-25 to the institution. She chose Paul Maheke’s “Mutual Survival, Lorde’s Manifesto,” a two-channel video installation made in 2015.)
Promoting the project on Instagram, Inniss described her overarching artistic pursuit. “My practice revolves around questioning the stability of identity. I work from my involuntary memories, taking a Proustian approach to my art-making. I focus on those unexpected memories that stimulate our senses and transport our minds to familiar or eerily unknown spaces,” the artist said.
“I use my awareness of the constructability of memory as a tool to look beyond identity in a binary way, recognizing that both memory and identity are constantly shifting. They can be clear, ambiguous, or even absent. There is no definitive truth.”
Inniss said she is looking forward to her representation with GRIMM. Her forthcoming spring exhibition with the gallery will be the young artist’s first-ever solo show.
“The idea of working with GRIMM was something I whimsically spoke about last year when first acclimatizing to the London art scene,” Inniss said. “It is not only a dream come true, but a privilege to now be joining this wonderful gallery and its truly inspiring roster of artists. I look forward to the next step of my artistic career with GRIMM!” CT
FIND MORE about Hettie Inniss on her website and Instagram
HETTIE INNISS, Installation view of “Model Car Graveyard,” 2023 (mixed media, two parts, 200 x 320 cm / 78 3/4 x 126 inches). | © Hettie Inniss, Courtesy the artist and GRIMM
BOOKSHELF
“Black Artists in British Art: A History since the 1950s” is authored by scholar Eddie Chambers. Edited by curator Carla Acevedo-Yates, “Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today” documents a recent traveling exhibition. For young readers, also consider “A Brief History of Black British Art” and “Black and British: An Illustrated History.”
