Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1948 Nairobi, Kenya

Year of Migration to the UK: 1962

Biography

Sculptor Juginder Lamba was born in British Kenya (now Kenya) in 1948. Spending his early years in a city dominated by British colonial influence, his formative experiences were shaped by a mix of African, Asian, American, and European cultures. At the age of ten, Lamba's family relocated to India and, subsequently, to England in 1962, where he began 'to understand what displacement, and this sense of not belonging, meant. But I also began to discover the positive side, namely that if you did not belong anywhere, then you could actually belong everywhere. I had the ability to cross and move in between cultures, religion, and nationality without being entrenched in any of them' (Beyond Frontiers). Lamba graduated with a degree in Politics and Philosophy from Lancaster University in 1969, before earning a Postgraduate Diploma in Education from St Martins College, Lancaster. He subsequently established a touring performance group, known as Earthbound Theatre Company. Concurrently, Lamba cultivated his own sculptural style, which led to his appointment as the inaugural artist for the city of Lancaster in 1978.

Though Lamba has worked with a range of materials, including stone and bronze, he is predominantly a woodcarver, often employing recycled materials. One notable example is the use of wood sourced from a Lancaster warehouse built from abandoned slave ships. For Lamba, wood serves as a bridge to integrate the disparate cultural influences and physical landscapes from his formative years. His technique of using aged, weathered timber connotes a sense of history's passage, and is particularly evocative of the Black Atlantic's history. Lamba has also used ancient bog oak, whose black colour and almost metallic texture gives his pieces a unique quality. This ancestral material represented 'a time on earth, before people were born' (Manjeet Lamba, 1986). Lamba's ideas and emotional responses towards his sculptural compositions are deeply informed by the properties of the wood he uses and what he refers to as the wood's 'presence'. This 'presence' is derived from the specific type of wood, as well as its historical usage and surrounding environment. Consequently, a block of wood becomes a dynamic entity in Lamba's perception, and he has explained that ‘at all stages I am interacting with a material which has a very strong force of its own' (Icarus, VADS). Lamba's artistic explorations center on profound universal themes such as time, growth, death, and memory. Commenting on his influences, he has declared ‘There’s something very much about each culture manifesting itself through my ideas in my work. There’s the stark nakedness which is very African, the spirituality which is Indian, and my European side, which is more pragmatic and conceptual’ (Hall 2010).

The symbol of the seed pod frequently appears in Lamba's sculptures, serving as an emblem of inherent creative force, and embodying Tantric philosophies pertaining to the fusion of male and female principles. Likewise, his series Conception and Birth represents the womb as a marvellous vessel, encapsulating the potential for new life. The Icarus myth features prominently as a philosophical motif in his sculptures. The Icarus Project, a collaborative initiative between Lamba and fellow diaspora sculptor, Tony Phillips, involved a series of intensive community workshops with local residents artists during 1989–90. These workshops culminated in the creation of outdoor sculptures, each bearing the influence of the themes associated with the Icarus myth.

Lamba's first solo exhibition took place in 1976 during the Edinburgh Festival. Since then, he has exhibited his work in numerous venues, including Westbourne Art Gallery (1984), Midlands Art Centre, jointly with Lubaina Himid (1985), and Waterhall Gallery, Birmingham (2008). He was part of the first comprehensive exhibition of Black art, Into the Open (1984), and later participated in the groundbreaking exhibition Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain 1966–1996 at the Caribbean Cultural Centre in New York (1997–98). Lambda was initiator and director of the South Asian Contemporary Visual Arts Festival (SAVAF) in 1993. Hosted in galleries throughout the West Midlands, it showcased the work of more than 60 contemporary artists of South Asian descent, representing countries including Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. In 1985, Lamba, along with Eddie Chambers and Tam Joseph, co-authored the pioneering booklet The Artpack: a History of Black Artists in Britain. This marked the first attempt to frame Black art as a movement, wherein Lamba emphasised the influence of primitivism on modern art. Lamba received the prestigious Henry Moore Fellowship in sculpture at John Moores University, Liverpool in 1994. In 2001, he co-edited the influential publication Beyond Frontiers: Contemporary British Artists of South Asian Descent with Amal Ghosh. Juginder Lamba is currently based in Shropshire, England. His work is represented in UK public collections at Bradford Museums and Galleries and Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford. The Juginder Lamba Collection, including exhibition catalogues, pamphlets, and educational material, is housed in the South Asian Diaspora Arts Archive.

Related books

Bryan Briggs and John Belcham, Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool: The UK's First Arts Centre (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020), pp. 162, 163, 170
Celeste-Marie Bernier, A UK–US 'Black Lexicon of Liberation': A Bibliography of African American and Black British Artists, Artworks, and Art-Making Traditions, Kalfou, Vol. 5, Spring 2018, pp. 172-210
Niru Ratman, ‘Lamba, Juginder’, in Alison Donnell ed., Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture (London: Routledge, 2013), p. 174
Eddie Chambers, Black Artists in British Art: A History from 1950 to the Present (London: I.B. Tauris, 2014)
Body and Soul: Sculptures by Juginder Lamba, Waterhall Gallery, Birmingham (2008)
Terry Grimley, 'Culture: Real life in these Designs', Birmingham Post, 15 July 2008, p. 11
Juginder Lamba: Sculptures (Leaf & Stream, 2007)
David Buckman, Artists in Britain Since 1945 (Bristol: Art Dictionaries, 2006)
David A. Bailey, Sonia Boyce and Ian Baucom eds., Shades of Black: Assembling Black Arts in 1980s Britain (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005)
Amal Ghosh and Juginder Lamba eds., Beyond Frontiers: Contemporary British Artists of South Asian Descent (London: Saffron Books, 2001)
Bryan Biggs, Angela Dimitrakaki and Juginder Lamba eds., Independent Practices: Representation, Location and History in Contemporary Visual Arts (Liverpool: Bluecoat Arts Centre and Liverpool School of Art & Design, 2000)
Mora J. Beauchamp-Byrd and Franklin Sirmans, Transforming the Crown: African, Asian & Caribbean Artists in Britain, 1966-1996 (New York: Franklin H. Williams Caribbean Cultural Center/African Diaspora Institute, 1997)
Ian Hunt, ‘Sunil Janah / Juginder Lamba / Surjit Simplay’, Art Monthly, October 1997, pp. 39-41
From the Wood, exhibition catalogue (Bluecoat Gallery, 1995)
Joseph Williams, ‘Colour Enters the Picture. South Asian Art’, The Times, 25 August 1993 
Juginder Lamba, ‘Introduction’, in South Asian Contemporary Visual Arts Festival (1993)
Icarus [Juginder Lamba and Tony Phillips], Exhibition catalogue (Wolverhampton, England: Wolverhampton Art Gallery, 1992)
One spirit: Black Artists Against Racism, exhibition catalogue (London: 198 Gallery, 1989) 
Eddie Chambers, Joseph Tam Joseph and Juginda Lamba eds. The Artpack: A History of Black Artists in Britain (London: Haringey Arts Council, 1988)
Juginder Lamba and Manjeet Lamba, Relics, exhibition catalogue ( Commonwealth Institute Art Gallery, 1986)
Juginder Lamba, exhibition catalogue (Woburn Fine Arts, 1986)
Pogus Caesar and Lubaina Himid, Into the Open: New Paintings, Prints and Sculpture by Contemporary Black Artists, exhibition catalogue (Sheffield: Sheffield Arts Department, 1984)

Related organisations

Earthbound Theatre (Co-founder and Director)
New Planets Arts Workshop (Co-founder and Director)
South Asian Contemporary Visual Arts Festival (founder)
St Martins College, Lancaster (post-graduate student)
University of Lancaster (student)

Selected exhibitions

A Tall Order, Rochdale Art Gallery (2023)
Public View, Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool (2017)
How Arts is Made, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (2007-9)
Body & Soul, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (2008)
A Square of Sky, Round Chapel, Hackney, London (2002)
Routes: Though Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbour's Idols, Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, London (1999)
Juginder Lamba exhibition, Herbert Museum & Gallery, Coventry (1997)
Juginder Lamba: From the Wood, John Moores University, Liverpool (1995)
Icarus: A Collaboration Between Juginder Lamba and Tony Phillips, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton (1992)
Trophies of Empire, Bluecoat Gallery (1992)
Juginder Lamba Sculptures, Walsall Museum and Art Gallery (1991)
Let the Canvas Come to Life with Dark Faces, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry (1990)
One Spirit: Black Artists Against Racism, 198 Gallery, London (1989)
British Relief Woodcarvings: An Exhibition of the Work of Eighteen Contemporary Woodcarvers, The Atkinson Gallery, Southport (1987) and Williamson Art Gallery and Museum, Birkenhead (1988)
Juginder Lamba, Nottingham Playhouse (1988)
British Relief Woodcarvings, Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport (1987)
Juginder Lamba: Relics, Commonwealth Institute, London; Rochdale Gallery (1985)
Combinations: Lubaina Himid and Juginder Lamba, The Cotton Gallery, Midlands Art Centre, Birmingham (1985)
Into the Open: New Paintings Prints and Sculptures by Contemporary Black Artists, Mappin Art Gallery; touring to Castle Museum, Nottingham and Newcastle Media Workshops (1984)
Juginder Lamba, Westbourne Art Gallery, London (1984)
'Recent Sculptures’ by Juginder Lamba, Down to Earth Galleries, Lancaster (1982)
Juginder Lamba, Peoples Gallery, London (1982)
Bog Oak Sculptures, Peoples Gallery (1982)
Juginder Lamba, Liverpool University (1979)
Paintings by Shanti Dutta, Sculpture by Juginder Lamba, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal (1977)
Juginder Lamba exhibition, part of the Edinburgh Festival (1976)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Juginder Lamba]

Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.

Juginder Lamba artist