Shiraz Bayjoo is a multi-disciplinary artist who works with film, painting, photography, performance, and installation. His research-based practice focuses on addressing cultural memory, postcolonial nationhood, and the exploration of identity and histories in a manner that challenges dominant cultural narratives through the use of photographs and artefacts stored in public and personal archives. Through investigating the legacy of European colonialism, the work explores the complex histories and relationships of migration and trade, and enquires into the challenge of authoring collective identity in the post-colonial world.
Recent solo projects include: To Desir, Mo Lamor, Copperfield, London, (UK 2025); Whitechapel gallery, permanent public installation, (UK 2023); Pu Travers Sa Dilo, Centre Culturel Les Étoiles de Sidi Moumen, Casablanca (Morrocco, 2023); Sharjah Biennial, (UAE 2022); Zot Konn – Yeman, ICF, Diaspora Pavilion 2, 59th Venice Biennial (Italy, 2022); Rivyer Nwar, Copperfield, London (UK, 2022); Lo Sa Later Ruz, Fondation H Paris (France, 2021); Searching for Libertalia, New Art Exchange, Nottingham (UK, 2019).
His work has been exhibited at institutions internationally, including: Tate Britain, London (UK); Tate Liverpool (UK); Gropius Bau, Berlin (Germany); Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town (South Africa); Somerset House, London (UK); Musée du Quai Branly, Jacques Chirac, Paris (France); 7th Colomboscope, Colombo (Sri Lanka); 15th Sharjah Biennale (UAE); Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri (USA); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico (MAC), San Juan (Puerto Rico); Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (Denmark); The Bowes Museum, Durham (UK); Drawing Room, London (UK); John Hansard Gallery, Southampton (UK); McMullen Museum, Boston (USA); Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh (UK); Július Koller Society, Bratislava (Slovakia); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (Germany); Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea (UK); 13th Bamako Encounters (Mali); MONA (Tasmania); 13th Biennale de Dakar (Senegal); Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi (India); 21st Biennale of Sydney (Australia); FRAC, Reunion Island (France).
Bayjoo has been awarded the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (USA, 2022) and has participated in residencies at Sharjah Art Foundation (2025); Intangible Residency, Chiang Mai (Thailand, 2024); Civitella Ranieri (Italy, 2023); Delfina Foundation (UK, 2021), Cite International des Artes, Paris (France, 2021); Atlas Arts (2019), Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, Wales (UK, 2018); Monash University, Melbourne (Australia, 2018) and Clarke House, Mumbai (India, 2017).
His work is held in collections internationally, including The Fitchburg Art Museum, Massachusetts (USA); FRAC Reunion (France); The Government Art Collection (UK); Fondation H, Paris (France); Sharjah Foundation (UAE); and private collections such as Mercedes Vilardell (Spain); A. Sainsbury (UK); S. Davídsdóttir (UK).
For his most recent solo exhibition with the gallery please click here.
For his most recent group exhibition with the gallery please click here.
Recent solo projects include: To Desir, Mo Lamor, Copperfield, London, (UK 2025); Whitechapel gallery, permanent public installation, (UK 2023); Pu Travers Sa Dilo, Centre Culturel Les Étoiles de Sidi Moumen, Casablanca (Morrocco, 2023); Sharjah Biennial, (UAE 2022); Zot Konn – Yeman, ICF, Diaspora Pavilion 2, 59th Venice Biennial (Italy, 2022); Rivyer Nwar, Copperfield, London (UK, 2022); Lo Sa Later Ruz, Fondation H Paris (France, 2021); Searching for Libertalia, New Art Exchange, Nottingham (UK, 2019).
His work has been exhibited at institutions internationally, including: Tate Britain, London (UK); Tate Liverpool (UK); Gropius Bau, Berlin (Germany); Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town (South Africa); Somerset House, London (UK); Musée du Quai Branly, Jacques Chirac, Paris (France); 7th Colomboscope, Colombo (Sri Lanka); 15th Sharjah Biennale (UAE); Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri (USA); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico (MAC), San Juan (Puerto Rico); Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (Denmark); The Bowes Museum, Durham (UK); Drawing Room, London (UK); John Hansard Gallery, Southampton (UK); McMullen Museum, Boston (USA); Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh (UK); Július Koller Society, Bratislava (Slovakia); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (Germany); Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea (UK); 13th Bamako Encounters (Mali); MONA (Tasmania); 13th Biennale de Dakar (Senegal); Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi (India); 21st Biennale of Sydney (Australia); FRAC, Reunion Island (France).
Bayjoo has been awarded the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (USA, 2022) and has participated in residencies at Sharjah Art Foundation (2025); Intangible Residency, Chiang Mai (Thailand, 2024); Civitella Ranieri (Italy, 2023); Delfina Foundation (UK, 2021), Cite International des Artes, Paris (France, 2021); Atlas Arts (2019), Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, Wales (UK, 2018); Monash University, Melbourne (Australia, 2018) and Clarke House, Mumbai (India, 2017).
His work is held in collections internationally, including The Fitchburg Art Museum, Massachusetts (USA); FRAC Reunion (France); The Government Art Collection (UK); Fondation H, Paris (France); Sharjah Foundation (UAE); and private collections such as Mercedes Vilardell (Spain); A. Sainsbury (UK); S. Davídsdóttir (UK).
For his most recent solo exhibition with the gallery please click here.
For his most recent group exhibition with the gallery please click here.
Installation view, Shiraz Bayjoo: Rivyer Nwar, Copperfield, London, 2022.
Installation view, Indigo Waves and Other Stories, Gropius Bau, Berlin, 2023.
Installation view, We Are History, Somerset House, London, 2021.
Installation view, Shiraz Bayjoo: Pu Travers Sa Dilo (To cross this water), Casablanca, 2023. Commissioned by Christine Eyene and the British Council.
Politique des Races - Part 3, 2018. Acrylic on wood, resin, Sapele wood frame, brass. 75 x 175 x 3 cm. Installation view, Shiraz Bayjoo: Searching for Libertalia, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, 2019.
Botanical Shrine, 2024. Installation view, Colomboscope: Way of the Forest, Sri Lanka, 2024.
Roots and Vine, 2022. Dye sublimation print on Half Panama woven 100% Cotton with tassel and braided trim. 145 x 200 cm. Installation view from the Venice Biennale 2022: ICF, Diaspora Pavillion II.
Installation view, Sharjah Biennial 14: Leaving the Echo Chamber, UAE, 2019.
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Solo Exhibitions
2025 To Desir, Mo Lamor, Copperfield, London 2023 Whitechapel Gallery, Permanent public art installation, London, UK Pu Travers Sa Dilo, Centre Culturel Les Étoiles de Sidi Moumen, Casablanca, Morrocco 2022 Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, UAE Zot Konn – Yeman, ICF, Diaspora Pavilion 2, Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy Rivyer Nwar, Copperfield, London, UK 2021 Lo Sa Later Ruz, Fondation H Paris, France 2020 It is the sea that connects us, 12 Gates Art, Philadelphia, USA 2019 Searching for Libertalia, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK 2018 1:54 African art fair Lounge commission, Somerset House, London, UK 2017 Surface to Horizon, Clarke House, Mumbai, India 2016 Ile de France, ICAIO, British Council, Mauritius Rome being the center, Arte Operativa, Rome, Italy 2015 Ile de France, SAW Video, Canada A land of extraordinary quarantines, Greenlease gallery, Kansas City, Kansas, USA Ile de France, 198 Gallery, London, UK 2013 Bayjoo + Vandy, London Newcastle project space, London, UK 2010/11 Whitechapel Gallery Artist in Residence, London, UK 2009 Workforce: Artist Shiraz Bayjoo employs the public, INIVA, London, UK Group Exhibitions 2026 Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, India (current) 2025 Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, India (current) With the certainty of tides, still I rise, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton (UK) The Land Sings Back, curated by Natasha Ginwala, Drawing Room, London (UK) Seeds: Containers of a World to Come, Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri (USA) The Plant that Stowed Away, Tate Liverpool, UK What the mountain has seen, John Moores University Gallery, Liverpool, UK Sunlight on the Sea Floor, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico (MAC), San Juan 2024 Sunlight on the Sea Floor, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico (MAC), San Juan Murmuration, The Bowes Museum, Durham, UK Silent Archives, Inverleith House, Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh, UK Way of the Forest, Colomboscope, Colombo, Sri Lanka Where to Land the Eye, Landskrona Foto Festival, Sweden Seeds and Souls, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark 2023 Seeds and Souls, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark Thinking Historically in the Present, 15th Edition Sharjah Biennial, UAE, directed by Hoor Al Qasimi Ngaay – Konesans, Gylnn Vivian Gallery, Swansea, Wales Indigo Waves and Other Waves: Re-Navigating the Afrasian Sea and Notions of Diaspora, Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa Luminocity Film Festival, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada Place and Story, Frieze No. 9 Cork Street, London, UK In and Out of Time, Gallery 1957, Accra, Ghana Between Earthly Beings and the Unknown Cosmic World, Július Koller Society, Bratislava 2022 In the Heart of Another Country, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany Ngaay- Konesans, Glynn Vivian gallery, Swansea, UK Indigo Waves & Other Stories, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, Africa 13th Edition Bamako Encounters, Mali 2021 AORA: V, AORA Virtual Museum, London, UK Archives of Disruption and Repair, Neue Galerie Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria We Are History, Somerset House, London, UK Constance Ari, MONA, Tasmania Here be dragons a reprise, Copperfield, London, UK 2020 Who is Gazing, Musée du Quai Branly, Jacques Chirac, Paris, France 5th Dhaka Art Summit: Seismic Movements, Bangladesh Indian Ocean Current, McMullen Museum, Boston, USA 2019 A Language of Form, Exhibit 320, New Delhi, India A Plot for the Multiverse, Indigo+Madder, London, UK Pran Kouraz, Art Night London, UK 52 Artists 52 Actions, Artspace Sydney, Australia 14th Biennale of Sharjah, UAE 2018 4th Biennale de Casablanca, Morocco Common Third, Copperfield Gallery, London, UK Representation Remembrance and the Memorial, Monash University, Australia 13th Biennale de Dakar, Senegal 21st Biennale of Sydney, Australia Ephemeral Coasts, Glyyn Vivian Art Gallery, Wales 2017 Ed Cross Fine Art, London Art Fair, London, UK FRAC, Reunion Island, France 2016 Edge Effects, Mauritius (2016); The Averard Hotel, London, UK 2015 Multiplied Art Fair, Christies, London, UK Homelands, Artsadmin, London, UK Ile de France research residency and exhibition, INIVA, London, UK 2014 Partage, French Institute, Mauritius Interchange Junctions with Yinka Shonibare, London, UK 2013 Oakley Project Space, London, UK Multiplied Art Fair, Christies, London, UK 2010 Illuminating Cultures, Tate Britain, London, UK 2009 Off the Map, INIVA, Rivington St, London, UK 2001 New Contemporaries, St. David’s, Cardiff, Wales Residencies and Awards 2025 Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE 2024 Intangible Residency, Chiang Mai, Thailand Hangar Residency, Lisbon, Portugal 2023 Whitechapel Gallery Clynes House public art commission, London, UK Civitella Ranieri Artist residency, Italy 2022 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, USA 2021 Delfina Foundation UK Fellowship, London Cite International des Arte Residency, Paris, France 2019 Khoj International Artists Residency, New Delhi, India Atlas Arts artist residency, Isle of Skye Art Night London Film Commission New Art Exchange artist commission 2018 Glynn Vivian, Wales artist residency 154 African Art fair Lounge Commission Monash University artist residency, Australia 2017 Clarke House artist residency, Mumbai 2015 INIVA asrtist residency, London 2014 Grants for the Arts, Arts Council of England, UK Gasworks Fellowship/ Triangle Network residency, Mauritius 2010/2011 Whitechapel Gallery Artist in Residence, London Collections The Fitchburg Art Museum, Massachusetts, USA FRAC Reunion, France The Government Art Collection, UK Fondation H, Paris, France Sharjah Foundation, UAE Private collections include Touria El Glaoui, London, UK; New York, USA; Marrakech, Morocco Mercedes Vilardell, Spain S. Davídsdóttir, UK A. Sainsbury, UK Selected press and publications e-flux: '6th Kochi-Muziris Biennale, “For the Time Being”' by Patrick Langley (23/12/2025): https://www.e-flux.com/criticism/6782362/6th-kochi-muziris-biennale-for-the-time-being Verge: Studies in Global Asias: ‘Indenture, Iteration: Race and the Aesthetics of Contract Labor’ by Najnin Islam, Kaneesha Cherelle Parsard, and Neelofer Qadir. Vol. 10, Issue 1 (Spring 2024), University of Minnesota Press: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/23/article/922356 ArtAsiaPacific: ‘Colomboscope 2024: Biennial as Import, Forest as Export’ by Yu’an Huang (17 June 2024): https://www.artasiapacific.com/ideas/colomboscope-2024-biennial-as-import-forest-as-export/ The Wick: ‘Spotlight Shiraz Bayjoo’ (30 Apr 2024): https://thewickculture.com/spotlight-shiraz-bayjoo/ STIR: ‘"I am a child of the Indian Ocean" - Shiraz Bayjoo on his practice and politics’ by Chintan Girish Modi (10 Oct 2024): https://www.stirworld.com/inspire-people-i-am-a-child-of-the-indian-ocean-shiraz-bayjoo-on-his-practice-and-politics Komplex Kultur Magazine: ‘“We are not separated by the sea, we are connected by it” – thoughts on decolonialization with Shiraz Bayjoo’ by Brigitte Egger (14 Feb 2022): https://komplex-kulturmagazin.com/2022/02/14/we-are-not-separated-by-the-sea-we-are-connected-by-it-thoughts-on-decolonialization-with-shiraz-bayjoo/ Urbanautica: ‘Shiraz Bayjoo: Searching for Libertalia’ by Elisa Dainelli (7 April 2021): https://urbanautica.com/interview/shiraz-bayjoo-searching-for-libertalia/2349 African Artists: From 1882 to Now, Phaidon, by Phaidon Editors, with introduction by Chika Okeke-Agulu and glossary by Joseph L Underwood (2021) Diptyk Magazine: ‘Au Quai Branly, une vision datée de la photographie non occidentale?’ by Marie Moignard (19 Oct 2020): https://www.diptykmag.com/expo-au-quai-branly-une-vision-datee-de-la-photographie-non-occidentale/ Africa States of Mind, Ekow Eshun, Thames and Hudson, 2020 À toi appartient le regard, Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, 2020 Indian Ocean Currents, McMullen Museum Boston, 2020 Photoworks Annual 1995 – 2020, Photoworks, 2020 Arts Cabinet: ‘When the Painterly meets the Political’ by Denise Clarke (May 2019): https://www.artscabinet.org/interviews/when-the-painter-meets-the-political Arab News: ‘Sharjah Biennial art exhibitions enrich Gulf's cultural discourse’ by Caline Malek (13 June 2019): https://www.arabnews.com/node/1510211/lifestyle Financial Times: ‘Sharjah Biennial: where hidden stories become public displays’ by maya Jaggi (27 Mar 2019): https://www.ft.com/content/61beec78-4a36-11e9-bde6-79eaea5acb64 52 Artists 52 Actions, co‑published by Artspace Sydney and Thames & Hudson Australia, 2019 Ocula: ‘Dismantle the Map: As Demonstrated by 52 Artists and their Actions’, Stephanie Bailey (17 July 2019): https://ocula.com/magazine/spotlights/dismantle-the-map-as-demonstrated-by-52-artis/ Something We Africans Got, Issue 9, 2019 These waters have stories to tell, by Celina Jeffery, Glynn Vivian Gallery, 2018 So-Far: ‘The Language of Landscape: Shiraz Bayjoo On Archives and Ecologies’: https://so-far.xyz/weekly/shiraz-bayjoo-interview Photoworks: ‘Searching for Libertalia’ by Shoair Mavlian. Issue #12 (‘Time’): https://photoworks.org.uk/shiraz-bayjoo-searching-for-libertalia/ Contemporary And: ‘Dak'Art 2018: In Conversation with Shiraz Bayjoo. Broadening the Perspectives on De-Colonisation’ by Theresa Sigmund (2 May 2018): https://www.contemporaryand.com/magazines/broadening-the-perspectives-on-de- colonisation/ Writing in Relation: ‘Shiraz Bayjoo: “The Unimaginable Distances”’ (23 Sep 2018): https://writinginrelation.wordpress.com/2018/09/23/shiraz-bayjoo-the-unimaginable-distances/ Dazed Digital: ‘The Bow Boys Archive’ by Louisa McGillicuddy (3 Jan 2012) https://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/12279/1/the-bow-boys-archive |