Blue Curry was born in 1974 in Nassau, Bahamas and immigrated to London in 1997. In 2009 he graduated with an MFA from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Initially trained in photography, Curry now works primarily with large scale installations and sculptural assemblages, his practice characterised by an ‘idiosyncratic language of commonplace objects and found materials’ which he uses ‘to engage with themes of exoticism, tourism and material culture’ (Blue Curry website).
Artist Blue Curry was born in 1974 in Nassau, Bahamas. In 1997 he travelled to England having been invited by an aunt who had immigrated to London in the 1960s. He originally thought his stay in the capital, designed so that he might further his studies and immerse himself in the London art scene, would be brief. And yet, he reflects, ‘I arrived at a time when the YBAs (Young British Artists) were creating work which was unlike anything going on back home. The longer I stayed the more intense that involvement and excitement for the London art scene got, so I never left’ (Blue Curry, Bahamas in London: The Artist Blue Curry, The Bahamas Weekly, 21 March 2011). Initially trained in photography at the University of Westminster (2004), Curry now works primarily with large scale installations and sculptural assemblages, his practice characterised by an ‘idiosyncratic language of commonplace objects and found materials’ which he uses ‘to engage with themes of exoticism, tourism and material culture’ (Blue Curry website).
In 2000 Curry became a member of artists’ collective, Popop and in 2007 he participated in exhibitions held at Standpoint Gallery and the Photographers’ Gallery, London. In 2009 he graduated with a Masters in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, University of London where his degree show, Postropical, was listed as one of the ten best in the country by the former editor of Art Review. The following year his work featured in a solo show and in six group exhibitions at Bearspace, Selfridges Ultralounge, Monica Bobinska Gallery, and The Woodmill, as well as in the 6th Liverpool Biennial (City States: Three Moments- The Caribbean). He was also selected for inclusion in the 2010 Catlin Guide to the 40 important emerging artists in the UK and listed as one of The Independent's ‘Future Art Stars’ as well as being profiled in a BBC documentary Goldsmiths: But is it Art? which charted his nine month journey towards completing and installing his final degree show. In 2011 Curry’s work was exhibited in solo shows at a Salvation Army Shop on Deptford High Street, London as part of Deptford X Award: Trove and in Folkestone as part of the Folkestone Triennial Fringe, as well as being included in group exhibitions at Aspex, Portsmouth, Sumarria Lunn, and the Austrian Cultural Forum in London. The following year he participated in Friday Late: Flying High at the Victoria & Albert Museum (V & A) as well as in Powerless Structures at Schwartz Gallery, and Mad March Hares at Vegas Gallery, in addition to showing new work in a solo show at Art First Projects, London. In 2013 he exhibited in Future Memories as part of a PEER Residency at Enclave, in the Creekside Open at A.P.T Gallery, Deptford and in Legacy: Five Schemes, First Variation, KARST Projects at High Cross House in Kent. In 2014 he presented a paper at the Contemporary Caribbean Visual Culture: Artistic Visions of Global Citizenship conference, exhibited work in a solo show at the Vitrine Gallery and was included in Curated by Paul Smith & Friends at Paul Smith's West End premises. In 2015 his work was selected by Cory Archangel and Hanne Mugaas for inclusion in the Studio Voltaire Open and in 2019 he founded Ruby Cruel, a creative space in Hackney, London, as well as taking part in The Empire Remains Shop at Grand Union, Birmingham.
Most recently, in 2021, Curry participated in an online symposium, Afrotropes and Art History’s Global Imagination hosted by the Courtauld Institute, while Untitled. Swimsuits, shower heads (2019) was featured in a group exhibition Here be Dragons, A Reprise at Copperfield. The work is described as ‘an installation of 12 hanging bathing suits’ which ‘refers to stereotypes of tourism, anonymity and avid consumption [...] [and] also hints to all of those working within the tourism industry who have been affected by the Covid crisis and the insurmountable inequities of the modern world’ (Here be Dragons: A Reprise, Copperfield, Contemporary Art Society website). Curry is also represented in Between the Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s-Now (2021) at Tate Britain with a work which ‘suggests the re-packaging of Caribbean culture for the tourism industry with a set of airline seats floating on a bamboo raft and strung with blonde, beaded braids’ (Hettie Judah, Life Between Islands, Tate Britain, review, The Independent, 7 December 2021). For Dr Erica Moiah James, ‘Anchored in the specificity of the Caribbean, Curry’s work finds life within a global art historical discourse and practice.’ Blue Curry lives and works between London, England and the Caribbean. His work is not yet represented in UK public collections.