Collins’ large-format black-and-white photographs brought her to prominence during the 1980s and led to a Turner Prize nomination in 1993. Her work draws attention to historical and social frameworks and addresses a wide range of subjects and geographical locations through images of interiors, exteriors, interactions, and specific objects. In 2015 a retrospective of her work was shown at the Sprengel Museum Hannover, in conjunction with the award of the Spectrum Prize and travelled to Camden Art Centre, London and Baltic Centre, Newcastle.
One of her most recent works – I will make up a song and sing it in a theatre with the night air above my head, 2018 has been shown at SF MOMA San Francisco, 2019, Tapies Foundation Barcelona, 2019, and at the Rotterdam Film Festival, 2020. She was awarded the 2019 Rose Award for Photography at the Royal Academy of Arts, London for her image depicting Nelson Mandela’s birthplace, The Road to Mvezo. Reading – Umtata, Mandela’s Teenage Home, National Monument, 2007. In 2020 Hannah Collins initiated and curated We Will Walk – Art and Resistance in the American South with Paul Goodwin, at Turner Contemporary in Margate, UK.
A portion of any sales generated from this exhibition will be donated to The Amazon Conservation Team who partner with indigenous and local communities to protect tropical forests and strengthen traditional culture.
“One evening whilst walking through the forest with the shaman he carefully cut a groove in a copal tree. He lit it to produce a small, controlled flickering flame that could sustain light but did not burn the damp tree. As we walked on he lit trees as we went to show us the way back from our night-time excursion and extinguished them as we no longer needed the light.”
Further solo exhibitions have included Viewpoints, Walker Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN, USA, 1989; The Hunter’s Space, Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK, 1995, travelling to: Cornerhouse Gallery, Manchester, UK and Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham, UK, 1995; A Worldwide Case of Homesickness, IMMA, Dublin, Ireland, 1996, travelling to: Contemporary Art Centre, Glasgow, UK, 1997; Current History, CaixaForum, Barcelona, 2007, travelling to: Artium Museum, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, 2008, CaixaForum, Madrid, Spain, 2009 and Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, USA, 2009; Solitude and Company, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, 2009 and Time will Reveal it all, Museo de Arte Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, 2010. Examples of her work are held in many collections including Tate (UK), Pompidou Centre (France), Reina Sofia Museum and MACBA (Spain), Sprengel Museum (Germany), Dallas Art Museum, MoMA, New York and Walker Art Center, (USA) amongst others. A new monograph Hannah Collins: Noah Purifoy will be published by Steidl. Hannah Collins is also working with 1960’s veteran Civil Rights activist Doris Derby to edit and narrate a journey through the civil rights era in Mississippi, this book will be published by MACK.
Maureen-Paley-Hannah-Collins-Press-Release-2021.pdf
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