YARA + DAVINA

Yara El-Sherbini and Davina Drummond are two pioneering British social practice artists, whom for almost two decades have been creating art with a focus on engagement and participation.

Unfailingly inventive, they use formats from within popular culture to make works which are accessible and playful. Their issue based work is site specific and responds to different contexts, from geo-politics to lessons on love, to knowledge production or mental health. Using formats such as jokes to mini golf and choirs and tattoo parlours, they root their works in the everyday, using a lightness of touch and humour to make works that are both poetic and universal. While they both have established independent practices, they also work collaboratively.

They’ve created artworks for multiple world leading art venues and public organisations such as Tate Modern and Tate Britain, Venice Biennale, Manchester Art Gallery, Baltic, IKON, National Portrait Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, Delfina Foundation, INIVA, Somerset House, Camden Council, Studio Museum Harlem, The Victoria & Albert, London, ZKM, Germany, HIAP, Helsinki, Kaunus Art Biennial (Lithuania), Modern Art Oxford, The RCA, Arnolfini, National Maritime Museum and the ICA. In 2016 they were joint British Council Artist Fellow’s at Portland State University, exploring ‘Motherhood; A Social Practice’.