Lubaina Himid: A Fine Toothed Comb – Interview part one

Lubaina Himid CBE RA is a British Turner Prize-winning artist who was born in Zanzibar, Tanzania and moved to the UK at four months old. Himid initially studied and worked in theatre and interior design in the 1970s, and thereafter - from the early 1980s - she has concentrated on creating, curating, and teaching art, becoming a pivotal figure in the Black British arts movement.

Himid’s work has been shown widely in national and international spaces, and her solo exhibition at Tate Modern (November 2021 - July 2022) was the first by a Black woman artist in that gallery space. For Manchester-based HOME, Himid has curated A Fine Toothed Comb, an exhibition which addresses hidden and forgotten layers within the city of Manchester, and runs from 07 October 2023 - 07 January 2024. This exhibition features new commissions of Himid’s own work, alongside commissions from Preston-based artists Magda Stawarska, Rebecca Chesney and Tracy Hill.

Writer Marjorie H Morgan had a conversation with Lubaina Himid – who was at the HOME gallery overseeing the final pre-opening work – to discuss her curation of the four installations in A Fine Toothed Comb exhibition.

Read part two of the interview - Lubaina Himid: A Fine Toothed Comb, here.

Image: Lubaina Himid portrait, Hollybush Gardens

Photography by Magda Stawarska