Super Saturday: Queering Power: Osman Yousefzada in conversation with Gemma Rolls-Bentley

About us

Explore the exhibition 'When will we be good enough?' and Osman Yousefzada's wider practice through a queer lens in this special in conversation event with author Gemma Rolls-Bentley.

In the exhibition, queer communities are presented as spaces of resistance, providing hope of an alternative future and a means of escape from the power structures, past and present.
This discussion provides an opportunity to delve deeper into these key aspects of the show with two queer icons, Yousefzada himself and internationally acclaimed curator and writer, Gemma Rolls-Bentley.

About Osman Yousefzada:
Osman Yousefzada is a British born, internationally recognised interdisciplinary artist and writer who describes his practice as auto ethnographic, where personal stories become political. His South Asian heritage is a strong influence in his craft-inspired, sculptural practice. Born into the diaspora communities of Birmingham, he creates work that reflects and questions the injustices he saw first-hand during his childhood, and which still pervade in the world. South Asian influences are what many might first see when they encounter but his work, but it is far broader and unravels global histories that remain relevant today. They are explored through moving image, installations, text works, sculpture, garment making and performance.

About Gemma Rolls-Bentley:
Gemma Rolls-Bentley has been at the forefront of contemporary art for almost two decades, working passionately to champion diversity in the field. Her debut book Queer Art; From Canvas to Club and the Spaces Between was published in Spring 2024 by Frances Lincoln and has been highlighted as a must-read by Them, Dazed, Timeout, The Guardian, Cultured and the FT. Her curatorial practice amplifies the work of female and queer artists and provides a platform for art that explores LGBTQIA+ identity. Gemma has curated for a range of international galleries and institutions, most recently Carl Freedman Gallery, Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, ICA London and London Art Fair. In 2022 she curated the Brighton Beacon Collection, the largest permanent display of queer art in the UK, for Soho House Brighton. Gemma has taught at numerous institutions including the Royal College of Art, the Glasgow School of Art, and Goldsmiths. She co-chairs the board of trustees for the charity Queercircle, sits on the Courtauld Association Committee, and the Leslie Lohman Museum Acquisitions Committee.