Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 50s – Now explores the relationship between the Caribbean and Britain in art from the 1950s to the present day; a social and cultural history more often told through literature or popular music. It is a multi-generational story of a Caribbean community that settled in Britain and forged a new Black British identity and culture. 


Featuring a wide array of artworks – by artists including Aubrey Williams, Frank Bowling, Althea McNish, Donald Locke, Sonia Boyce, Isaac Julien, Lubaina Himid, Peter Doig, Chris Ofili, Steve McQueen, Alberta Whittle, and many more – this book provides a platform for artists hailing from or in dialogue with the Caribbean. Engaging with the complex cross-cultural narratives of the past, exploring the social, cultural and political issues of the time, and pointing to the future, it offers a multi-layered and vital account of postwar and contemporary Caribbean-British art history and is a celebration of the communities that have shaped modern Britain. 


Includes contributions from:


David A. Bailey MBE, Artistic Director of the International Curators Forum.

Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain.

Paul Gilroy, Professor of the Humanities at University College London.

Daniella Rose King, a writer and Adjunct Curator of Caribbean Diasporic Art, Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational.

David Scott, Professor of Anthropology in the Institute for Research in African American Studies, Columbia University, New York.

Giulia Smith, a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the Ruskin School of Art and Worcester College, University of Oxford (2019–2022).

Gilane Tawadros, a writer and curator, Chief Executive of DACS and Chair of the Stuart Hall Foundation.

Allison Thompson, an art historian, writer and curator based in Barbados.

Grace Wales Bonner, a British fashion designer.


'The book is a wonderful and timely opportunity to do full justice to the extraordinary art history of Caribbean connection in British art, mostly by British artists of Caribbean heritage. This is an art history that reflects deeply and with great vitality on a broader cultural, political, social and intellectual experience. We are proud to bring together the work of 46 extraordinary artists from across four generations, alongside a rich, incisive set of essays and commentaries, within this handsome publication'


Alex Farquharson, co-editor and Director of Tate Britain.