Roo Dhissou is a British, Indian, (British Asian, Punjabi, and all things in between and beyond) multidisciplinary artist based in the UK.
Roo Dhissou is a British, Indian, (British Asian, Punjabi, and all things in between and beyond) multidisciplinary artist based in the UK.
Dhissou explores the relationships and connections we have with one another as well as how we formulate a sense of self. Through her arts practice she investigates how multiplicity in culture is conducive to the concept of belonging and space. She is interested in facilitating discourse around race, gender and social class and the performability of these social structures. Using playful techniques, her current work reimagines cultural experience through gestalt expression, participatory performance, shared practices, gifting and attachments in found objects.
Dhissou was the recipient of the prestigious Gertrude Aston Bowater Bequest as well as the Inaugural AIS Award 2020 and Tate Liverpool Artists Award 2020. She has both a BA Hons and MA in Fine Art. She currently works with contemporary art gallery Ikon in Birmingham as a Research Assistant for Ikon in the 1990s with Keith Piper funded by the Paul Mellon Centre. This year she will be showing with Coventry Biennial, Niru Ratnam and more recently has had work acquired for New Art Gallery Walsall.
Roo Dhissou b. 1992, UK
RESIDENCIES
November 2021 - January 2022 / New Midland Group Collaborative Residency with Sahjan Kooner, ArtCore Gallery, Derby
June 2021 - July 2021 / JOYA Arte + Ecologia, Sierra Maria, Almeria, Spain
April 2021 / 12ø Collective, Online Residency, #30works30days, Worldwide Web
April 2021 - May 2021 / DAAJ, Asylum Artists Quarter, Month Long Residency, Wolverhampton, UK
SHOWS
February 2022 / New Art Gallery Walsall, ´The Twenty Twenty Collection’, Walsall, UK
January 2022 - February 2022 / with Sahjan Kooner, ArtCore Gallery, Derby
November 2021 / ´Feelin Blue’, Solo Show, Stryx Gallery, Birmingham
October 2021 - January 2022 / Coventry Biennial, ´Hyper-Possible’, Coventry and Warwickshire
July - August 2021 / with Jan Agha, Niru Ratnam, London
June 2021 / DOOM, Black Hole Club, Vivid Peojects, Birmingham
May - June 2021 / ´Traces of Others’ Collaboration with melissandre varin and Ryan Christopher, Arcadia Gallery, Coventry
May 2021 / ´Ikon for Artists’, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
AWARDS AND ACCOLADES
2021-25 / AHRC UKRI PhD award
2021/ Arts Council England DYCP Award
2020/ Tate Liverpool Artist Award
2020 / AIS Award An Indian Summer arts festival
2019 / Recipient of the Gertrude Aston Bowater Bequest Award
EDUCATION
2021-25 / PhD - Midlands 4 Cities AHRC, School of Media x School of Art, Birmingham City University, UK
2019-20 / MA Fine Art, School Of Art, Birmingham City University, UK
2011-14 / Fine Art BA (Hons), School Of Art, Birmingham City University, UK
WORK (CURRENT)
Information Assistant, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK
Research Assistant, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK - funded by the Paul Mellon Centre, Ikon and the BLK Art Group, Ikon in the 90s with Keith Piper
Studio Teaching Assistant (MA), Birmingham School of Art, UK
Board Trustee, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK
