Tessa Whitehead’s work is rooted in ancestral landscapes and the interpersonal relationships formed and sustained within them. Often set in the backdrop of the lush and foreboding Bahamian bush, Whitehead’s paintings illustrate the often opaque “knowings” of traversing Caribbean landscapes. The “knowings” are rooted in intuition/magic and Whitehead’s engagement with femininity. At times her work unearths archetypes of the wild women; a pointed deconstruction of an idyllic tropical façade. Although known for her large-scale figurative paintings, her practice incorporates a variety of mediums, including, drawing, performance, analogue photography, film, and sculpture.
Tessa Whitehead (b. 1985, Nassau, The Bahamas) is a multi-media artist working primarily in painting. She received her BA in Fine Arts from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (2007) and her MFA from The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London (2009). Whitehead’s most recent solo exhibition was at The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas in 2019. She has participated in group exhibitions including Beginning, The Brighton Storeroom, Barbados (2019); Ubersee, Halle 14, Spinnerei in Leipzig, Germany (2017); Showoff, Cooke Latham Gallery (2020); Nassau Calling (collaborative with Heino Schmid), at HilgerBROTKunsthalle, Vienna, Austria (2015); and Showoff (with Heino Schmid), curated by LeandaKateLouise, London, UK (2015).