Billy Dosanjh works in film and photography. Much of his practice is set in the de-industrialised factory towns of the Midlands, a harsh romanticised world where thousands of manual labourers were invited in the 1960s. He uses mise-en-scene techniques, archive, and text to exalt the threshold experiences of newcomers.

His practice poetically humanises the experiences of displaced people and so called “minorities” living in “majority” societies, and the impacts that ripple through the generations that follow. His first major work was Beauty Queens (2005), a documentary about race riots in North West Birmingham, an event overlooked by national media. This work took him to the National Film and TV School on a full scholarship, where he deepened his appreciation of visual art and new ways to explore complicated worlds and stories.

His work has shown worldwide in galleries and cinemas, including Somerset House, London, New Art Gallery, Walsall, NAE, Nottingham, British Film Institute , London, Guardian Worldwide, and on broadcast channels like C4 & BBC Four.

He is the winner of the Satyajit Ray Film Award, 2011, RBSA Photography Award, 2023, for his series Exiles, and he was nominated for the Film London Jarman Award, 2016, 2023, and to represent Great Britain at the Venice Biennale 2024.

Dosanjh is on a 15 months residency on UAL’s 20/20 Decolonising the Arts. By 2023 his work will be held in over 20 public collections, including Kettle’s Yard, MIMA, The Box, The Hepworth, New Art Gallery, Compton Verney and Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

Finally, Billy is also a full voting member of Bafta.

“Dosanjh’s work occupies a fascinating territory that is informed by Euro-American art theory, but resolutely remains ‘from the culture [of the region]’, revealing a new language and perspective. Dosanjh’s practice also contributes to and contemporises the little explored and emerging areas of ‘newfoundland’ and ‘settler art’ … by fundamentally speaking to the universal migratory experience.”

- Melanie Kidd (Curator and Head of Programmes, New Art Exchange) 2022

“In postwar Britain, we have yet to develop a set of cohesive stories around the South Asian immigrant experience … By firmly planting his artistic project in the working class, post-industrial, communities of South Asian heritage in the Black Country, Dosanjh has taken on the task of creating a new form of ‘settler art’. In our post-Brexit times of divisive anti-immigrant rhetoric, echoing Enoch Powell, and often most stridently voiced by UK-born politicians from South Asian heritage immigrant families, Dosanjh’s artistic project seems not just timely, but an urgent cultural conversation. Without settling the past, there is no clear way forward.”

Hammad Nassar, (co-curator, with Irene Aristizábal, of British Art Show 9 2021–2022 and Principal Research Fellow at the Decolonising Arts Institute, UAL), in ‘Billy Dosanjh and the Quest to Settle’, 2023

Read the essay by Hammad Nasar: Billy Dosanjh and the Quest to Settle

Hammad Nasar, wrote the essay on Billy’s recent exhibition, [TRAVELLER, YOUR FOOTPRINTS], held at the New Art Exchange in Nottingham. You can read the it here with relevant images and trailers, or on the New Art Exchange website at the bottom of the exhibition page.

Awards / Noms

Winner of the The RBSA Photography Exhibition 2023 for Dayshift & Seamstress, Derek Jarman Artist Film, Satyajit Ray Award, Griersons, Royal Television Society, Film London Lodestar.

Interviews & Talks

New Art Exchange, Nottingham - In Conversation event held on the 3rd of November 2022 with myself and curator, Melanie Kidd. We explored and discussed my exhibition, [Traveller, Your Footprints]. This event was in person and streamed live. You can watch a recording of the live stream here:

Walsall Art Gallery: The Exiles

Film London Masterclass: An Introduction to Artists working with Film

Mind the Gaps - Flatpack Film Festival Talk

I make art that revels in diaspora worlds. It comes from a place of connection with the stories and storytellers of cultures from elsewhere. I’m inspired by Smethwick, my hometown, and it’s surrounding Black Country areas. To this day my practice stays rooted in what many locals argue is the centre of the modern world. I tap into lived experiences, moments out of ordinary consciousness, to open doorways into liminal spaces at the edges of culture and society. The talks above, particularly at New Art Exchange, offer a deep reflection on my practice.