| Code | DS/UK/545 |
| Person Name | Agard; Brenda (1961- 2012); Photographer, Artist, Playwright |
| Dates | 1961- 2012 |
| Dates and Places | 1961 Born in the U.K.
2012 Died in London, England |
| History | Brenda Agard, born in 1961, was a photographer, artist, and playwright, and a key figure within the UK Black Arts Movement. Agard’s work explored identity, and her experience as a black woman. Agard challenged traditional, Western depictions of black women, instead providing them with agency as the subjects of her work. Agard was involved in a number of influential exhibitions involving black artists in the 1980s, such as the 1985 exhibitions ‘The Thin Black Line’, and ‘Mirror Reflecting Darkly’. Agard was also a member of the Black Photographers Group. Despite the key role played by Agard during the 1980s within Black British art, she remains lesser known than her counterparts, and understanding and access to her work is limited. Agard died in 2012, and her estate is owned and managed by her family. |
| Activity | 1983 Black Women Time Now, Battersea Arts Centre, London
1984 The Selectors’ Show, Camerawork, London
1985 Mirror Reflecting Darkly, Brixton Art Gallery, London
1985 The Thin Black Line, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
1986 Some of Us are Brave, All of Us are Strong, The Black Art Gallery, London.
1986 Unrecorded Truths, The Elbow Room, London
1987 Polareyes: Black Women Photographers, Camden Arts Centre, London
1987 Testimony, Camerawork, London.
1988 Spectrum Women’s Festival Open Exhibition, South London Gallery, London
1988 Influencers, South London Art Gallery, London |
| Source | Chambers, Eddie. Black Artists in British Art: A History Since the 1950s. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014. |
| Keen, Melanie, and Liz Ward ed. Recordings: A Select Bibliography of Contemporary African, Afro-Caribbean and Asian British Art. Institute of International Visual Arts in collaboration with Chelsea College of Art and Design, 1996. |
| Park, Gillian. “The Pavilion Women’s Photography Center 1983-1993: Deciphering an ‘Incomplete’ (Feminist) Project.” Doctoral Dissertation, University of Leeds, 2018. |
| Vellet, Paula. “5 Black Women Photographers to Celebrate this Black History Month”. Hundred Heroines. Accessed July 5, 2024. https://hundredheroines.org/historical-heroines/5-black-women-photographers-to-celebrate-this-black-history-month/. |