[Image: Donald Rodney and Mike Phillips installing Visceral Canker (1990) at Mount Edgecombe Gun Emplacement, for the TSWA Four Cities Project - thanks to Diane Symons for the contact strip.]
Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker, Whitechapel Gallery, 12 February – 4 May 2025.
Following acclaimed presentations at both Spike Island (Bristol) and Nottingham Contemporary (Nottingham), Whitechapel Gallery brings this major survey exhibition of the late British multi-media artist Donald Rodney (b.1961, West Bromwich; d.1998, London) to London.
Visceral Canker encompasses the majority of Rodney’s surviving works from 1982 to 1997 including large-scale oil pastels on X-rays, kinetic and animatronic sculptures as well as his sketchbooks and rare archival materials. The exhibition showcases the extraordinary breadth and influence of Rodney’s work, confirming him as a vital figure in British art, and introducing him to a new generation of audiences.
Rodney experimented with new materials and technologies throughout his all too brief career. Working across sculpture, installation, drawing, painting and digital media, Rodney’s wide-ranging practice resists simple categorisation both thematically and materially, due to his innovative approach to both mediums and technical processes.
Rodney lived with sickle cell anaemia and harnessed the condition to confront the prejudices and injustices surrounding racial identity, Black masculinity, chronic illness and Britain’s colonial past. At his untimely death in 1998 from complications arising from sickle cell, Rodney left a multifaceted and influential body of work which has influenced artists, writers and filmmakers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Read the full exhibition press release.
The exhibition is curated by Gasworks Director Robert Leckie and Spike Island Director Nicole Yip and organised at Whitechapel Gallery by Gilane Tawadros and Cameron Foote."
Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker, Nottingham Contemporary, 28 September – 5 January.
“Donald Rodney, In Retrospect, Installation view at iniva, London, 2008. Photo: Thierry Bal.
Nottingham Contemporary presents a major retrospective of the late British artist Donald Rodney (b.1961, UK; d.1998, UK). Bringing together nearly all that survives of his work across painting, drawing, installation, sculpture and digital media with rare archive materials, the exhibition highlights Rodney’s significance to the recent history of British art. Though Rodney has had a perennial influence on the wider UK artist community, there have been few opportunities to experience the full breadth and complexity of his work. This touring exhibition will highlight the significance of Rodney’s work and re-address themes of racial identity, chronic illness, Black masculinity and Britain’s colonial past.
The exhibition is presented in partnership with Spike Island and Whitechapel Gallery, where it will tour during 2024–25.
This exhibition is presented alongside an archival display of items related to Rodney’s time at Trent Polytechnic in Bonington Gallery’s Vitrines.”
Donald Rodney Visceral Canker, Spike Island, 25 May – 8 September.
“Visceral Canker aims to introduce a new generation of audiences to Rodney’s life and work, cementing his place as a vital figure in British art.” Possibly the first time Donald Rodney: Autoicon, Pslams and Visceral Canker have been exhibited together…
Spike Island presents a major survey exhibition of late British artist Donald Rodney (b. 1961, West Bromwich; d. 1998, London).
Rodney worked across sculpture, installation, drawing, painting, and digital media, experimenting with new materials and technologies throughout his life. His work is known for being incisive, acerbic, and evocative in its analysis of the prejudices and injustices surrounding racial identity, Black masculinity, chronic illness, and Britain’s colonial past. Rodney was also co-founding member of the BLK Art Group: an association of young Black artists formed in Wolverhampton in 1982. The exhibition at Spike Island brings together all of Rodney’s surviving works. This includes large-scale oil pastels on X-rays, kinetic and animatronic sculptures, and restaged installations, as well as sketchbooks and rare archive materials, spanning 1982 to 1997. Also on display is Autoicon (1997–2000), an interactive digital artwork initiated by Rodney and finalised by a group of his close friends after he died from sickle cell anaemia in 1998. Rodney suffered from sickle cell throughout his life. This meant persistent pain, regular invasive treatments and increasing immobility. Though these were extremely challenging experiences, Rodney often incorporated them directly into his work as metaphors for the illnesses and injustices of society at large. This is evident in works such as Flesh of My Flesh (1996), a photographic triptych that includes a close-up of a raised scar on Rodney’s thigh; and My Mother, My Father, My Sister, My Brother (1997), a tiny maquette of a house made from pins and his own skin. Visceral Canker aims to introduce a new generation of audiences to Rodney’s life and work, cementing his place as a vital figure in British art. The title comes from a 1990 work by the artist, which comprises two wooden plaques displaying heraldic images, linked together by a system of medical tubes that pump theatrical blood. It exemplifies both the viscerality of Rodney’s work and politics, and his persistent scrutiny of the canker, or disease, at the heart of society: in this case specifically, how the inhumanity of Britain’s colonial history continues to structure life today. The exhibition is curated by former Spike Island Director Robert Leckie and Nicole Yip, Chief Curator at Nottingham Contemporary. It is presented in partnership with Nottingham Contemporary and Whitechapel Gallery, where it will tour on Spike Island.Spike Island
Visceral Canker
Psalms
Donald Rodney: Autoicon
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