East, London
Divine Southgate–Smith
Navigator
NicolettiNicoletti is pleased to present Navigator, the first solo exhibition by London-based, Togolese-British artist Divine Southgate-Smith at the gallery. Spanning photographic collage, sculpture, moving-image, text, poetry, and 3D animation, Southgate-Smith’s practice examines conditions of oppression and empowerment by referencing and intersecting black, queer and female experiences. Central to her/their approach is a meticulous focus on selecting, ordering, and assembling archival material. Comprising photographic collages printed on diverse materials such as glass, gesso boards and tatami mats, Navigator invites us to consider archives as temporal instruments enabling the envisioning of a future deeply connected to the past. Throughout the exhibition, the artist evokes an Afro-diasporic counter-memory that blends personal, literary, folkloric, and historical narratives, conjuring layered, speculative spaces that (re)map histories beyond prescribed contexts. Southgate-Smith (1995, Lomé) received her/their Postgraduate Diploma from the The Royal Academy of Arts, London (2022). In 2024, the artist received a research fellowship from East Gallery, Norwich, in collaboration with Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts, where she/they studied the cultural and spiritual function of sculpture in African domestic spaces. Selected solo exhibitions include Aspects of Things Existing, Frieze London with Nicoletti (2024); Am I Porous or Imploding, East Gallery, Norwich University of the Arts, UK (2024); What I’ve Been Doing Lately, CEU open gallery, Budapest, organised and supported by The British council, as a part Photo Festival (2024); Spit, Duo exhibition with Emmanuel Awuni, Public Gallery, London, UK; Teeth Kissin’, Soup Gallery, London, UK (2023) Selected group exhibitions include Power Plants: Intoxicants, Stimulants & Narcotics, Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts, Norwich, UK (2024); Field of Difference, Palmer Gallery, London, UK (2024); The last train after the last train, Public Gallery, London, UK (2023); Globalisto: Fragments of a Community, curated by Mo Laudi, 31 Project, Paris, FR (2023); Galerina x Arcadia Missa, Ways of Living 3.0, Arcadia Missa, London, UK (2023); DAWA, curated by Latif Samassi, 3537, Paris, FR (2023); The Ultimate Bootleg Experience, Studio Chappel, London, UK (2023); and Of Mythic Worlds, curated by Harold Offeh, Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts, Norwich, UK (2022), among others. In 2022 she/they published her/them first book: Teeth Kissin’ Where Elephants Reside, published by Lichen Books, and All Purpose Studios. Southgate-Smith’s work is part of a number of permanent collections, including The Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK; Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts, Norwich, UK; Casa Do Design, Porto, PT; Lexus Private collection, Brussels, BE.