Joy Gregory

Born, 1959 in Oxfordshire, England

From the publication, In Black and White: Prints from Africa and the Diaspora, by Gill Saunders and Zoe Whitley, V&A Publishing, 2013: “Having found few cultural representations of black female beauty while growing up, Joy Gregory began her career as an artist by creating them for herself, in compelling photographic self-portraits. The complexities and contradictions of contemporary norms of beauty have placed an important role in the artist’s oeuvre, namely through the examination of societal pressures that can compel women to conform to western ideals of female presentation, as revealed through the politics of hair straightening and hair dyeing.”

Joy Gregory secured an MA from the Royal College of Art, and before that, a BA, from Manchester Polytechnic. It was her association with the RCA that earned her a place in RCA Black, held at the RCA, 31 August - 6 September 2011. The exhibition featured contributions by a number of Black artists who had studied at the RCA over the course of several decades.

»  Critical Decade: Black British Photography in the 80s

Book relating to a publication, 1992

»  Disrupted Borders Party

Invite relating to an exhibition, 1994

»  In Black and White: Prints from Africa and the Diaspora

Book relating to a publication, 2013

»  RCA Black

Catalogue relating to an exhibition, 2011

»  Transforming the Crown

Catalogue relating to an exhibition, 1997