(1960 - )
Isaac Julien’s parents were born in the Caribbean, and emigrated to Britain in the 1950s. Although he was born and grew up in Manchester, his family’s cultural background and history has inspired much of his work, in particular the effects of migration on personal identity and issues around living within a diasporic community. Julien studied painting and fine art film at St Martin’s School of Art and established a reputation as an innovative filmmaker during the early 1990s, most notably with Young Soul Rebels, a prizewinner at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991. Since then his practice has moved towards the visual arts, although film and photography continue to form major components of his work.
The recipient of numerous awards, Julien was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2001, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Kunst Film Biennale in Cologne in 2003, and the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award, at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 2014. He has exhibited and screened his work internationally since the 1990s, and is currently Professor of Media Art at Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe, Germany; and Chair, Professor of Global Art, at the University of the Arts, London. He is also a Patron of Stuart Hall Foundation, London; Trustee of Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa; Parasol Unit, London; and Trustee of Art Pace Foundation, San Antonio, USA. In 2018, Julien was awarded a CBE for services to the Arts.
