Denzil Forrester: Duppy Conqueror/We Culture

Denzil Forrester: Duppy Conqueror/We Culture—with texts by Christopher Partridge, Mora J. Beauchamp-Byrd, Erin Dziedzic; poems by luminary dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson; and an interview by Gean Moreno—showcases forty-five years of paintings and drawings by Grenada-born and Cornwall, UK–based artist Denzil Forrester.

Taking inspiration from London’s dub reggae culture and clubs of the 1980s, Forrester’s working process is analogous to creating versions or reconfigurations of the same music track. Forrester’s numerous sketches from this period, made in the semi-darkness of urban dance halls, continue to inform his paintings today. References to the Caribbean diaspora, dub reggae and the policing of Black cultural expression in Britain reverberate throughout his practice. 

The book accompanied concurrent exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, and Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City. Denzil Forrester: Duppy Conqueror/We Culture includes over 200 color plates, newly commissioned scholarship, archival images, and an annotated interview. It is the artist’s most comprehensive publication to date.