Dr Harold Offeh
- Head of Programme
- Contemporary Art Practice MA/MFA
- Reader in Performance & Social Arts Practice
Harold is Head of Programme in MA/MFA Contemporary Art Practice (CAP). As a practising artist he is interested in embodying histories, futures, performance and play.
Harold Offeh was born in Accra, Ghana, but grew up in London. He is an artist working in a range of media including performance, video, photography, learning and social arts practice.
He studied MA Fine Art Photography at the Royal College of Art (1999–2001) and completed his PhD in 2020. He lives in Cambridge and works in London.
He was previously a Reader in Fine Art at Leeds Beckett University. He has also been a Visiting Lecturer at Goldsmiths College, Slade School of Art, the Royal Academy Schools, Central St Martins and School of the Art Institute in Chicago, USA.
Key details
School, Centre or Area
Gallery
More information
Research interests
Offeh draws from popular music, film and mainstream cultural trends to interrogate our acceptance of political, class, gender and racial models in society. His practice has also approached themes of happiness, play and Afrofuturism through performance and collective live engagements.
In 2019 he was awarded the Paul Hamlyn award for artists, the largest award for artists in the UK. Recent projects include The Mothership Collective 2.0, which first showed at the Baltic in Gateshead and tours to The Power Plant in Toronto, Canada and the Tramway in Glasgow (2026) and the solo survey exhibition Mmm, Got to Try a Little Harder, It Could, Be Sweet, Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge (2026) and touring through 2027.
External collaborations
Offeh is also currently co–chair of New Contemporaries, an organisation that supports emerging contemporary artists through a bi-annual open submission exhibition, mentoring and studio opportunities.
He is also a trustee for Wysing Art Centre is a rural arts campus based outside Cambridge that supports artists through a programme of residencies and Commissions.
Offeh’s advocacy supports access to arts education at all levels and he has worked closely with organisations like Freelands Foundation and Hospital Rooms
Awards
ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art, Kuopio, Finland (nomination), 2025
Paul Hamlyn Visual Arts Award Recipient, 2019
Arts Foundation Nominee, 2018
Decibel Artists Award Winner, 2006
Current and recent research projects
Harold Offeh: Mmm Gotta Try a Little Harder, It Could Be Sweet
2025-27
The first major solo exhibition of Harold Offeh’s work in a UK institution, this exhibition explored two decades of the artist’s videos, performances and projects that had taken place across the world.
For more than twenty years, Offeh has been making playful, provocative performance and video works that explore subjects ranging from pop culture to identity and conformity. Commissioned by Kette’s Yard gallery, University of Cambridge and touring to The Exchange in Penzance
Harold Offeh - The Mothership Collective 2:0
2025-25
The Mothership Collective 2:0 invites visitors of all ages to imagine potential futures by visiting stations throughout the exhibition, each one drawing on sci-fi, futurisms and utopian thinking. Using sound, text and objects, visitors will be encouraged to explore their creativity and have collaborative encounters that explore what different futures might look like.
Co-commissioned by Tramway and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead and touring to The Power Plant in Canada.
Publications, exhibitions, other outcomes
Publications
Hayward. G Ed (2025) Harold Offeh: Mmm got to Try a Little harder, it Could be Sweet, Cambridge, Kettles Yard
Thorp, A. Khalaf. A, Egan, J. Ed (2023) HOW WE HOLD: REHEARSALS FOR ART AND SOCIAL CHANGE, London, Serpentine Gallery,
Perdomo Daniels, A (2022) BEYOND HOMOGENEITY , Syker Vorwerk, Germany, Zentrum für Zeitgenössische Kunst.
Solo Exhibitions/Projects
(2025-26) Mmm Gotta Try a Little Harder, It Could Be Sweet, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, UK.
(2025) The Mothership Collective 2.0, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada.
(2026) Trusted Strangers Induce Fearless Strangers, Showroom, London
(2025) Holborn Viaduct Commission, London
(2025) CREATING PATTERNS, Somerset House Skate Commission, London
(2025) The Mothership Collective 2.0, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK
(2024) The Lounge, The Lightbox, Woking, UK
(2024) POSE, Tate Play Studio, Tate Britain, London,