Sonia Elizabeth Barrett born in the UK is of Jamaican German parentage and grew up in Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, Cyprus and the UK. She studied Literature at St Andrews University Scotland and her MFA at the Transart Institute Berlin/New York.

 

Her work unpacks the boundary between the object the animal and the plant with a focus on race and gender. She performs furniture so she can run her hands along the fissures and manifest strategies for multiple compatible existences and mourn.

 

Her sculptural practice includes placemaking with a view to assembling communities under the threats of climate change to (re)claim space using hair and maps as well as instituting permanently.

 

Sonia is a MacDowell fellow and has been recognised by the Premio Ora prize, NY Art-Slant showcase for sculpture and the Neo Art Prize. She has exhibited by the National Gallery of Jamaica, 32 degrees East Gallery, Kampala, Uganda, the Heinrich Böll Institute Germany, the British Library, The Museum of Derby, and the Kunsthaus Nürnberg. Her work has been shown at a number of galleries including the OCCCA California, the NGBK Berlin, Tete Berlin, The Format Contemporary in Milan and Basel and the Rosenwald Wolf Gallery Philadelphia.

 

Her works have been published in the International Review of African American Art, Black History 365 Journal, Kunstforum International, Protocollum, ELSE journal and the Contemporary & Platform.  She is a co-initiator of the AIPCC in Bavaria.