Installation view of “Alberta Whittle: Towards a m̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶f̶u̶l̶ loving praxis, we cast seeds into the darkness,” Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York, N.Y. (March 6-April 19, 2025). | © Alberta Whittle. Courtesy the artist and Nicola Vassell Gallery. Photo: Lance Brewer
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions
THE LATEST EXHIBITION OF Alberta Whittle (b. 1980) features new materially rich works made in response to the uncertainty of our contemporary moment. Nearly two dozen collage and assemblage-style paintings, watercolors, mixed-media sculpture, and a single-channel video are on view at Nicola Vassell, a Black woman-owned gallery. The lengthy title of the exhibition (“Towards a motherful loving praxis, we cast seeds into the darkness”) is framed around the word “motherful,” which in Whittle’s interpretation means “to express an expanded, genderless sense of care and support between people and species more generally, a concept her works enact through their formal relationships and material complexity.” Today is the final day of the show. Whittle represented Scotland at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022. Born in Bridgetown, Barbados, she lives and works in Glasgow. CT
“Alberta Whittle: Towards a m̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶f̶u̶l̶ loving praxis, we cast seeds into the darkness” is on view at Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York, N.Y., from March 6-April 19, 2025
FIND MORE about the exhibition
ALBERTA WHITTLE, “Learning a Motherful Praxis at Her Knee,” 2025 (acrylic on canvas, framed with fretwork, beaded coils (shackles, pony beads, cowrie shells, seashells, glass beads and jewelry wire), golden snail, and conch, frame dimensions: 57 ½ x 66 ½ x 2 ½ inches / 146.1 x 168.9 x 6.3 cm); overall dimensions: 101 ⅝ x 65 ⅜ x 2 ⅜ inches / 258.1 x 166.1 x 6 cm). | © Alberta Whitte, Courtesy the artist and Nicola Vassell Gallery
Installation view of “Alberta Whittle: Towards a m̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶f̶u̶l̶ loving praxis, we cast seeds into the darkness,” Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York, N.Y. (March 6-April 19, 2025). | © Alberta Whittle. Courtesy the artist and Nicola Vassell Gallery. Photo: Lance Brewer
ALBERTA WHITTLE, “Finding the Tempo Before We Begin,” 2025 (acrylic on canvas, tambourines, raffia, doilies and beaded coils (shackles, pony beads, cowrie shells, clay beads, agate, freshwater pearls, rose quartz, keys and jewelry wire, 58 ½ x 39 ¾ x 3 ⅞ inches / 148.6 x 101 x 9.8 cm). | © Alberta Whittle, Courtesy the artist and Nicolla Vassell Gallery
Installation view of “Alberta Whittle: Towards a m̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶f̶u̶l̶ loving praxis, we cast seeds into the darkness,” Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York, N.Y. (March 6-April 19, 2025). | © Alberta Whittle. Courtesy the artist and Nicola Vassell Gallery. Photo: Lance Brewer
Installation view of “Alberta Whittle: Towards a m̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶f̶u̶l̶ loving praxis, we cast seeds into the darkness,” Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York, N.Y. (March 6-April 19, 2025). | © Alberta Whittle. Courtesy the artist and Nicola Vassell Gallery. Photo: Lance Brewer
Installation view of “Alberta Whittle: Towards a m̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶f̶u̶l̶ loving praxis, we cast seeds into the darkness,” Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York, N.Y. (March 6-April 19, 2025). Shown, from left, “Incantation III,” 2025 (acrylic on canvas, hoodie, kilt pin, pony beads and raffia) and “Incantation II,” 2025 (acrylic on canvas and raffia). | © Alberta Whittle. Courtesy the artist and Nicola Vassell Gallery. Photo: Lance Brewer
Installation view of “Alberta Whittle: Towards a m̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶f̶u̶l̶ loving praxis, we cast seeds into the darkness,” Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York, N.Y. (March 6-April 19, 2025). | © Alberta Whittle. Courtesy the artist and Nicola Vassell Gallery. Photo: Lance Brewer
ALBERTA WHITTLE, “Terra Nullius is not a Defence,” 2025 (acrylic on canvas, framed with fretwork, bell, tambourine with crystal attachment and beaded coils (shackles, pony beads, cowrie shells, Goody plastic barrettes, seashells, glass beads and jewelry wire); frame dimensions: 57 x 58 ½ x 2 ½ inches / 144.8 x 148.6 x 6.3 cm); overall dimensions: 101 x 57 ½ x 2 ⅜ inches / 256.5 x 146.1 x 6 cm). | © Alberta Whittle, Courtesy the artist and Nicola Vassell Gallery
ALBERTA WHITTLE, Detail of “Our Breath is the Coil that Connects Us,” 2025 (beaded coils (shackles, pony beads, cowrie shells, clay beads, agate, freshwater pearls, rose quartz, and jewelry wire), feather, tambourine, hoodie, synthetic hair braid, fishermen’s rope, Goody plastic barrettes, pad locks and conch). | © Alberta Whittle, Courtesy the artist and Nicola Vassell Gallery
Installation view of “Alberta Whittle: Towards a m̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶f̶u̶l̶ loving praxis, we cast seeds into the darkness,” Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York, N.Y. (March 6-April 19, 2025). | © Alberta Whittle. Courtesy the artist and Nicola Vassell Gallery. Photo: Lance Brewer
FIND MORE about Alberta Whittle on Instagram
BOOKSHELF
“Alberta Whittle: How Flexible Can We Make the Mouth” was published in 2019 on the occasion of an exhibition at Dundee Contemporary Arts, the artist’s first institutional solo show in the UK. Alberta Whittle is also among the artists included in “A Brief History of Black British Art” and “Liberation Begins in the Imagination: Writings on Caribbean-British Art.”
