About Zadie Xa

Zadie Xa has developed an expansive practice that addresses the nature of diasporic identities, global histories, familial legacies, and interspecies communication. For her, art offers a means to analyse socio-political conditions and cultural behaviours through a lens of masquerade, play, costuming, and storytelling. Embracing a highly collaborative mode of working, she has developed ongoing exchanges with dancers and musicians and has worked with Benito Mayor Vallejo since 2006.

Solo exhibitions of Xa’s work have been presented at Whitechapel Gallery, London; The Box, Plymouth; Leeds Art Gallery; Remai Modern, Saskatoon; Tramway, Glasgow; and Yarat Contemporary Art Space, Baku. Xa has also participated in the Jeju Biennale (2022), the 13th Shanghai Biennale, and the Sharjah Biennial 16, for which she was nominated for the Turner Prize 2025. Xa has a BFA from Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design, Vancouver, and an MFA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London.