Rhea Dillon (b. 1996) is an interdisciplinary artist based in London. Dillon references queer thought and feminist theory in her examination and abstraction of the ‘rules of representation’, using sculpture, painting, poetry and olfaction as devices to undermine contemporary Western culture. Dillon understands objects as a system through which to consider Black Britishness and postcoloniality. By incorporating found materials, language and other diverse media, Dillon focuses on the potential of objects to unsettle layers of sedimented meaning, and as receptacles for personal and shared memory or trauma. Within a condition of chaos, Dillon employs abstraction as a strategy to resist objectification; the refusal to be legible pushing against the ‘visible invisibility’ of the Black (woman’s) body. These deconstructions and reconfigurations come together to form a poethic exploration of Blackness in her work.

Dillon graduated with a BA in Fashion Communication from Central Saint Martins (2019).

Solo exhibitions include ‘An Alterable Terrain’, Tate Britain, London (2023); ‘We looked for eyes creased with concern, but saw only veil’, Sweetwater, Berlin (2023); ‘The Sombre Majesty (or, on being the pronounced dead)’, Soft Opening, London (2022); Online Screening, The Kitchen, New York (2021); ‘Nonbody Nonthing No Thing’, V.O Curations, London (2021); ‘Janus’, Soft Opening, London (2021); ‘Dishwater and No Images’, Peak Gallery, London (2019); ‘The Name I Call Myself,’ 1948 Lab, London; Black Angel, Pakkard Studio, Los Angeles (2018). 

Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at Sweetwater, Berlin (2022); Gladstone Gallery, New York (2022); Bold Tendencies, London (2022); Park Nights, Serpentine Pavilion, London (2021); Division of Labour Gallery, London (2021); Almine Rech, London (2020); Guts Gallery, London (2020); Studio of Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, London (2020); Mimosa House, London (2019); Aperture, New York (2019); British Film Institute, London (2019); Redhook Labs, New York (2019); Somerset House, London (2019); ARTNOIR and NeueHouse, New York (2019). 

Dillon has been awarded The Samuel Ross Black British Artist Grant (2022), won the Best UK Short Film Award at London Short Film Festival for ‘The Name I Call Myself’ (2020), the Inaugural NOWNESS Awardee (2019), British Fashion Council’s New Wave Creatives: Artist Award (2019) and DAZED 100, Curated list of the best worldwide creatives, artists & activists (2019). She was the artist-in-residence at Triangle - Astérides, Marseille (2022); Art OMI, New York (2021); V.O Curations, London (2021); Black Cultural Archives, London (2020).

Rhea Dillon is represented by Soft Opening.