Heart in Exile

Group show at The Black-Art Gallery. 1983
Date: 3 September, 1983
Curator: Shakka Dedi
Organiser: The Black-Art Gallery

The first exhibition organised and presented at The Black-Art Gallery was Heart in Exile which featured the work of 22 artists, all of them were of African-Caribbean background. Many were based in London, but a significant number were drawn from towns and cities across the country. The artists included Marlene Smith, who would, some years later, go on to replace The Black-Art Gallery’s first director, Shakka Dedi.

Heart in Exile featured work by Tyrone Bravo, Vanley Burke, Pogus Caesar, Dee Casco, Eddie Chambers, Adrian Compton, Shakka Dedi, Olive Desnoes, Terry Dyer, Carl Gabriel, Funsani Gentiles, Anum Iyapo, George Kelly, Cherry Lawrence, Ossie Murray, Pitika Ntuli, Joseph Olubu, Keith Piper, Barry Simpson, Marlene Smith, Wayne Tenyue and someone going under the name ‘Woodpecker’. 4 September - 2 October 1983.

Like a number of large-scale exhibitions of Black artists in the 1980s, Heart in Exile featured a number of artists who were perhaps less well-known than some of their exhibiting colleagues. In that sense, such exhibitions represented valuable opportunities for certain artists to have their work receive wider exposure, as much as such exhibitions represented equally valuable opportunities for gallery audiences to see a wide cross section of work produced by a range of artists.

»  Heart in Exile

Catalogue relating to an exhibition, 1983