Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, August 20, 2026 : Lubaina Himid, a British painter, curator (#2610)

Thursday, August 20, 2026

Artist of the Day, August 20, 2026 : Lubaina Himid, a British painter, curator (#2610)

Lubaina Himid CBE RA (1954) is a pioneering British artist, curator, and academic whose work centers on cultural history, identity reclamation, and activism. Born in the Zanzibar Sultanate in 1954, she moved to Britain as an infant and later studied Theatre Design at the Wimbledon College of Arts before earning a master's degree in Cultural History from the Royal College of Art.

As a leading figure in the 1980s British Black Arts Movement, Himid curated groundbreaking exhibitions like The Thin Black Line and Into the Open, which heavily championed black women artists and a new generation of black British creators.

Her own artistic practice features vivid, large-scale installations—such as Naming the Money, a crowd of 100 life-sized cutouts representing enslaved Africans in European courts—that contrast striking visuals with poignant historical truths. Her immense contributions to the art world earned her the Turner Prize in 2017, a CBE in 2018, and selection by the British Council to represent the United Kingdom at the 2026 Venice Biennale.

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