Yto Barrada is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans the full spectrum of the arts. Drawing on her background in history and political science, she investigates cultural narratives, often blending archival material with fiction. She will represent France at next year’s Venice Biennale.

Her early series A Life Full of Holes (1998–2004) examined the Strait of Gibraltar as a political and symbolic boundary. She later founded the Cinémathèque de Tanger (2006), North Africa’s first repertory cinema and archive, and The Mothership, an eco-feminist research center in Tangier with a dye garden that fuels her textile practice. Major exhibitions include Bad Color Combinations (Stedelijk Museum, 2022–23), The Dye Garden (American Academy in Rome, 2018; Neuberger Museum, 2019), and Bite the Hand (Pace Gallery, London, 2024).

Her work is now on view at the South London Gallery. Informed by postcolonial thought, Barrada’s work addresses themes of migration, identity, and cultural production while celebrating play too.

The title Thrill, Fill and Spill draws on a gardener’s three elements of planting. This exhibition spans textile, film, sculpture, and painting, gathering new and existing works that draw on her research into colour theory, abstraction, ecological crisis, and cultural memory. It’s on view until January 2026.