Rhea Dillon (b.1996, London, UK) has been awarded The Baloise Art Prize for her presentation Leaning Figures, at Art Basel – Statements presented by Soft Opening.
The prestigious prize is awarded to the artist by a jury of international experts, including Karola Kraus, General Director, mumok Vienna; Bettina Steinbrügge, Director, Mudam Luxembourg; Susanne Pfeffer, Director, MMK Frankfurt; Susanne Titz, Director Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach; and Uli Sigg, Swiss collector and patron of the arts. The prize includes the acquisition by Baloise of works by the artist on behalf of the MMK, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt.
Examining material and colonial histories, theories of minimalism and abstraction, and Black feminist epistemologies, Rhea Dillon’s sculptural practice considers the formation of Caribbean and British identities. Leaning Figures represents an extension, abstraction, and breakdown of both the Caribbean domestic dinnerware cabinet and the museological vitrine, with the former itself symbolising both boat and casket to engage with the history of the movement of Black bodies across water. In these wall-based sculptural works, sapele mahogany and glass-paneled boxes tightly house replicated versions of cut-crystal plates, newly cast in resin with either molasses, or soil from Jamaica. Enclosed and leaning inside these vitrines, Dillon’s reimagined glassware portrays Black bodies at rest.
Rhea Dillon (b. 1996, UK) is an artist, writer and poet based in London. Dillon’s first institutional solo exhibition An Alterable Terrain was held at Tate Britain in 2023 as part of the Art Now series, with an accompanying book published by Tate Publishing. Recent and forthcoming exhibitions include Gestural Poethics at Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg (2025, solo); On Collecting, Growth and Excess, Second Sequence at The Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich (2025); Fractal Being at Cordova, Barcelona (2024, solo); Gestural Poetics at Soft Opening at Paul Soto, Los Angeles (2024, solo); Each now, is the time, the space at Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore (2024); Berggruen Arts & Culture in Partnership with The Kitchen at Fondamenta Diedo, Venice (2024); The Black Fold at Kevin Space, Vienna (2023, solo); We looked for eyes creased with concern, but saw only veils at Sweetwater, Berlin (2023, solo); The Sombre Majesty (or, on being the pronounced dead) at Soft Opening, London (2022, solo); Real Corporeal at Gladstone Gallery, New York (2022); Love at Bold Tendencies, London (2022) and Nonbody Nonthing No Thing at VO Curations, London (2021, solo). Dillon was an artist in residence at Triangle – Astérides, Marseille (2022) and V.O. Curations, London (2021). The artist presented Catgut – The Opera as part of Park Nights 2021 at the Serpentine Pavilion. Dillon’s work is in the public collections of Tate Collection, London; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; Arts Council Collection, UK.
Art Basel in Basel 2025, Preview (by invitation only) June 17th and June 18th, 2025
Public opening dates June 19th, 2025–Sunday, June 22nd, 2025 @artbasel
