Joy Gregory (born 1959) is a British visual artist. Gregory's work explores concerns related to race, gender and cultural differences in contemporary society. Her work has been published"Critical Decade: Black British Photography in the 80s", Ten.8, vol. 2, no. 3, 1992. and exhibited worldwide and is held in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum and Government Art Collection in the UK.
Life and work Gregory was born in Bicester, England, in 1959 to Jamaican parents. She grew up in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and went on to study at Manchester Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art.
Gregory's techniques range from digital video installations to Victorian printing techniques.
In 2019, Gregory was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society.
The exhibition Lost languages and other voices in 2011 at Impressions Gallery in Bradford was the first major retrospective of her work spanning more than 20 years.
In 2023, Gregory and the Whitechapel Gallery won the Freelands Award. A retrospective exhibition of Gregory's career, entitled Catching Flies With Honey, opened at the gallery in October 2025.
Exhibitions Polareyes: Black Women Photographers, Camden Arts Centre, London, 1987 Autoportaits, Camerawork, London, 1990 Ecstatic Antibodies: Resisting the AIDS Mythology, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 1990 Who Do You Take Me For?, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 1992 4th Istanbul Biennal, Istanbul, Turkey, 1995 Blonde, Metro Cinema, London, 1998 Lost Languages and other voices, Impressions Gallery, Bradford, 2011 Catching Flies With Honey, Whitechapel Gallery, 8 October 2025 – 1 March 2026.
Publications Joy Gregory. London: Autograph, Association of Black Photographers, 1994. . Objects of Beauty. London: Autograph, Association of Black Photographers, 2004. .
Collections Gregory's work is held in the following permanent collections: Victoria and Albert Museum, London Government Art Collection, UK
Honours and recognition 2019: Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society 2023: Freelands Award
References
External links
"Colour as Memory: Joy Gregory in Conversation with Kaia Charles", NOW Gallery, 11 March 2021.