Denzil Forrester: A Career Illuminated Across Two Galleries

Installation: Denzil Forrester, 'Two Islands, One World', Stephen Friedman Gallery, New York (2024). Courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York and Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York. Photos by Olympia Shannon.

The pioneering artist’s life and work receive a museum-caliber presentation in this dual-gallery retrospective.

Denzil Forrester’s exhibitions at Stephen Friedman Gallery and Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York amount to a singular achievement: a comprehensive retrospective of his groundbreaking career spanning four decades. Splitting the show across two spaces isn’t just a logistical necessity but an inspired curatorial decision, allowing for a nuanced exploration of Forrester’s evolution as an artist and his enduring relevance.

Curated by Sheena Wagstaff, the exhibitions transcend the typical scope of commercial gallery presentations, bearing the depth and detail of a museum show. Wagstaff masterfully contextualizes Forrester’s life and work with a vitrine of personal memorabilia — sketches, diaries, and photographs — alongside a timeline that interweaves his artistic journey with pivotal cultural and political moments. These additions transform the spaces into immersive experiences that enrich our understanding of Forrester’s creative process and historical significance.

Installation: Denzil Forrester, 'Two Islands, One World', Stephen Friedman Gallery, New York (2024). Courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York and Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York. Photos by Olympia Shannon.

The dual-gallery format grants breathing room to showcase both the breadth and the emotional resonance of Forrester’s art. At Stephen Friedman Gallery, visitors encounter the dynamism of his nightclub-inspired paintings, where pulsating colors and rhythmic compositions evoke the vitality of Black British culture. By contrast, the spotlight room at Andrew Kreps Gallery delves into more somber subjects, including Forrester’s haunting tributes to his friend Winston Rose and his stark confrontations with police brutality. Here, the intimacy of the setting invites deeper contemplation, underscoring the weight of these themes.

Installation: Denzil Forrester, 'Two Islands, One World', Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York.(2024). Courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York and Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York. Photos by Olympia Shannon.

Forrester’s ability to capture light, motion, and humanity remains a cornerstone of his practice. His vibrant canvases teem with energy, while his more introspective works remind us of art’s power to bear witness and provoke reflection. Among the standout works in the exhibitions are Dem Life (2023) and High Life (2024), which serve as a visual conversation between past and present. Both paintings depict a crowd mid-dance, their dynamic forms flooded with a dreamlike lavender hue that envelops the scene in a sense of unity and rhythm. The compositions, reminiscent of early Cubism, fragment and reassemble figures to capture the kinetic energy of the moment. Forrester's process reflects his cyclical relationship with his art: he repeatedly returns to his original sketches, allowing time and perspective to reshape his vision. This temporal layering gives the works a cinematic quality, as though each painting is a frame from a larger, unfolding narrative, connecting past iterations with present evolutions.

Installation: Denzil Forrester, 'Two Islands, One World', Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York.(2024). Courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York and Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York. Photos by Olympia Shannon.

This monumental retrospective not only celebrates Forrester’s artistic achievements but also situates him firmly within the canon of contemporary art. Rarely do two galleries achieve such a unified vision, delivering an experience that resonates with the depth and complexity of the artist’s legacy.

Artist Biography

Denzil Forrester was born in Grenada in 1956 and moved to London in 1967. He now lives and works in Cornwall, UK. Forrester received a BA in Fine Art from the Central School of Art, London in 1979 and an MA in Fine Art from the Royal College of Art, London in 1983. He was awarded the decoration of Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire or MBE in December 2020. Forrester received the Morley Fellowship from Morley College, London in 2019; a Harkness Fellowship in New York in 1986–1988; and a scholarship by the British School at Rome in 1983–1985.

Major solo exhibitions opened at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri and Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Florida in 2023. Recent group shows include those at National Portrait Gallery, London (2024); Monash University Museum of Art, Cauldfield East, Australia (2023); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois (2022); Tate Britain, London (2021) and Hayward Gallery, London (2021). He participated in the 58th Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (2022). 

Forrester’s work can be found in the collections of Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Florida; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Tate, UK; Arts Council Collection, UK; Government Art Collection, UK and Long Museum, Shanghai, amongst many others.


Two Islands, One World remains on view across Stephen Friedman Gallery and Andrew Kreps Gallery through December 18, 2024, in New York.

For more information about this exhibition, please visit the Stephen Friedman Gallery here and the Andrew Kreps Gallery here.