What kind of a year has 2017 been for you?
It’s been a year full of exhibition launches, making new work and meeting new people who offered me opportunities, and others who simply wanted to wish me well.
What has changed for the better and what, if anything, has changed for the worse?
Things changed for the better in that I found the space to go to the cinema and spend really good times with friends, but changed for the worse in that the political landscape seems to be getting harder to navigate.
What do you wish hadn’t happened this year?
I wish that the Grenfell Tower fire hadn’t happened this year; it didn’t need to.
What do you wish had happened this year, but didn’t?
I wish that I’d managed to have a three-week summer holiday somewhere quiet, warm and easy to get to.
What would you characterise as your major achievement this year and why?
People might say that my major achievement this year was winning the Turner Prize, but for me it was managing to make a serious amount of new paintings, while being asked on a weekly basis to give press interviews and write lists like this.
Is there anything you’d like to have done this year but haven’t?
I’d love to have seen many more exhibitions, somehow I only managed to get to my friends’ shows.
What would make 2018 a better year than 2017?
2018 will be a better year than 2017 if the artists I know can work with the curators they admire.
The Turner Prize 2017 exhibition continues at Ferens Art Gallery, Hull until 7 January 2018;
Lubaina Himid: Meticulous Observations and Naming the Money is at Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool until 18 March 2018;
A solo exhibition by Lubaina Himid will open at Baltic, Gateshead in May 2018
Images:
1. Lubaina Himid. Photo: Edmund Blok for Modern Art Oxford
2. Lubaina Himid, Le Rodeur: The Exchange, 2016, installation view, the Turner Prize exhibition, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull. Photo: David Levene
3. Lubaina Himid, A Fashionable Marriage, 1987, the Turner Prize exhibition. Ferens Art Gallery. Hull. Photo: David Levene
More on a-n.co.uk:
Turner Prize 2017: Lubaina Himid’s win is inspirational for young and old artists alike
A Q&A with… Lubaina Himid, painter and British Black Arts Movement pioneer
