Divine Southgate-Smith

Divine Southgate-Smith (b. 1995, Lome, Togo) is a British trans-disciplinary artist. Raised between Paris and London, she is currently enrolled at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2019-2022). ​ Southgate-Smith has developed a practice comprising film, text, spoken word, performance, sound, installation, and sculpture. The work often references and questions articulations of black, queer, and female experience. She navigates hypothetical spaces where things are abstracted, contextualised, de-contextualised, omitted, revealed, voiced, or silenced. Through questioning the traditional equation between sight and understanding – she attempts to use spoken address to contemplate the relationship between visual representation, position (societal and political), stereotyping, authority, oppression, and empowerment. ​ In 2016, alongside 3 other emerging artists from Central Saint Martins, she established the artist collective ()PARENTHESIS STUDIO. The collective exhibited their most recent works as part of a collaboration with In Limen at Teatro Romano, Lisbon (2019), LEXUS at the UX Art Space, Lisbon (2018), and HERMÈS at the Saatchi Gallery, London (2017). Southgate-Smith is the founder of the curatorial platform for expanded media and performance, The House of Contemporaries (2020), and the former Co-Founder of 14TH CINEMA (2016-2018).