Instagram @roodhissou

    © Roo Dhissou and Jalebi Press 2026. Please ask for permission when referencing my
    writing because it may contain original references to my PhD, or using my images, as they
    may belong to one of my many photographer friends.




    B. 1992 Birmingham, UK/Raised Punjab, India

    Studio - Grand Union, Birmingham

    Solo Shows and Commissions

    2025
    Heal, Heal, Home, Hmmm x Intervention Architecture—V&A Museum

    2024
    Hospital Rooms—Sandwell CAHMS

    2023
    Courses for Dis-Course(s)—GLOAM, Sheffield
    Courses for Dis-Course(s)—Primary, Nottingham

    Group Exhibitions

    2026
    Market Stalls with Permindar Kaur—Wolverhampton Art Gallery, UK
    Made in the Middle    —MAC, Birmingham, UK
    • Break the  Mould —Ikon, Birmingham
    • Birmingham Botanical Gardens
    • Reflections: Sangat and the Self—The Whitworth, Manchester

    2025
    • Serendipity Arts Festival—Goa, India, with Craftspace x British Council
    School Dinners— Food Museum, Suffolk
    • Made in the Middle—Delia Derbyshire Building, Coventry
     Made in the Middle—Nuneat
    on Museum & Art Gallery
    • Reflections: Sangat and the Self x WSWF, London
         Made in the Middle—HUB, Sleaford, UK
    Made in the Middle—Leicester Gallery, UK
    Inbetweeners—Galeria EL, Elbląg, Poland
    New Contemporaries, ICA London

    2024
    British Art Fair 2024, Saatchi Gallery
    Greenwich Docklands & International Festival
    New Contemporaries, Plymouth
    Don’t play with your food, Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds
    There is Strength in Softness, Hospital Rooms x Sandwell CAMHS, Birmingham
    Rhythm with Osman Yousefzada—Ikon, Birmingham

    2023
    Concealed/ Reveal, with Curating for Change— Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
    GET WELL SOON—Ormston House, Limerick, Ireland
    Jaag Collective—Soho House, Birmingham

    2022
    explorers, zines and DIY culture with Hamja Ahsan— Tate Liverpool, UK
    breathe, spirit and life 呼吸、靈魂與生命— Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
    Conversations from Home with Gugan Gill—Vivid Projects, Birmingham - Postponed
    Summer Show—Eastside Projects, Birmingham
    Cotton: labour, land and body, showing work for Bharti Parmar—Crafts Council Gallery, London
    Art Licks Launch, The Idea of a City—Recent Activity, Birmingham
    Landedness in collaboration with BLK SWN Society & MADEYOULOOK/ documenta 15—Primary, Nottingham
    Regenerative Neighbourhood Festival: Home & Heritage: Panjab—Civic Square, Birmingham
    The Big Lunch—Civic Square, Birmingham
    Our Joy— Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, UK
    Art Track—Dudley, UK
    (ASTRAL VILLAGE) slooooowwwww—ArtCore, Derby (duo show with Sahjan Kooner)
    Best Seat in the House curated by Rankin—Oxo Gallery, London
    Coventry Biennial, Hyper-possible—Coventry and Warwickshire

    2021
    SHEDDING, SHIFTING, SLIPPING—The New Happiness, Birmingham
    Welcome to New Earth ( ARC_Artist Rehab Club, with Larissa Shaw)—Vivid Projects with Black Hole Club, Birmingham
    Best Seat in the House curated by Rankin—Oxo Gallery, London
    Coventry Biennial, Hyper-possible—Coventry and Warwickshire
    The Twenty Twenty Collection—The New Art Gallery Walsall, UK
    Drawings and Research for Kadhi by Bharti Parmar, British Textiles Biennial— Blackburn Museum, Blackburn, UK
    SAAC bazaar II—The Hive, Birmingham
    SHOW UP—Allotment show, crated by Sofia Niazi, with Sahjan Kooner, Fred Hubble, Sarah Taylor-Silverwood, Aleesha Nandhra and Larissa Shaw
    The Big Lunch—Civic Square, Birmingham
    Revolution with melissandre varin—Arcadia, Coventry
    Duo Show with Jan Agha—Niru Ratnam, London
    DOOM, Black Hole Club—Vivid Peojects, Birmingham
    Traces of Others: Collaboration with melissandre varin and Ryan Christopher—Arcadia Gallery, Coventry
    Ikon for Artists—Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
    Speculating—Arcadia, Coventry

    2020
    AIS festival—Leicester, UK
    Unavoidable—Birmingham School of Art, UK
    Peep at Stryx—Stryx Gallery, Birmingham

    2019
    PLAY—Stryx Gallery, Birmingham
    Pittu Garam—Stryx Gallery, Birmingham
    Pittu Garam—Arhus, Denmark
    SAAC Summer Show—Ward End, Birmingham

    2014-2019
    Gave up on art worked for Lidl—Glasgow, Birmingham, Wales, Manchester, London, UK

    2014
    I make therefore I am, BA Show—Birmingham School of Art

    Talks Workshops and Conferences

    Roo has hosted multiple artist talks, featured on panels, hosted and chaired panels, and presented at academic and non-academic conferences, and has hosted and facilitated workshops for the last 6 years. Notable partners include Tate Liverpool, Ikon Gallery, Project Artworks, Explorers Project, Liverpool Biennial, The Southbank Centre, the V&A, Black Mountains College and AN assembly, to name a few.
    Awards and Residencies

    2026
    Arts Council England Research and Development Fund
    Wysing Artists Residency 2026 - 2027
    Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Residency Nomination     and Shortlist

    2025
    A-N Artists’ Bursary
    Henry Moore Foundation Award for Sculpture
    Sir Lenny Henry Award for Inclusivity
    • Soup Residency,

    2024
    Serpentine Support Structures for Support Structures
    New Contemporaries Award
    Material Matters with Civic Square and Material Cultures

    2023
    Jerwood Survey III Nomination
    Arts Council England Project Grant Conviviality and Access Grant for Courses for Dis-Course(s)
    Grain Projects Residency/ Bursary Award: A Voyage on Water—Vancouver/ Surrey, BC, Canada
    Government Arts Collection Nomination

    2022
    Residency with East Bristol Contemporary
    AHRC UKRI - M4C Engagement Fund for Gramounce Food Cosmogonies and Expeditions Residency with Bursary
    Food Hygiene and Mass Catering award Level III
    BCU Post Graduate Research Development Award

    2021
    New Midland Group Collaborative Residency/ Bursary Award with Sahjan Kooner
    JOYA Arte + Ecologia—Sierra Maria, Almeria, Spain
    Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice Award
    12ø Collective, Online Residency, #30works30days
    DAAJ, Asylum Artists Quarter, Residency/Bursary Award—Wolverhampton
    AHRC UKRI - M4C Doctoral Funding Award

    2020
    AIS Inaugural Award An Indian Summer Arts Festival
    Tate Liverpool Artist Award
    Storytelling with Roo, Stryx Gallery, Residency/Bursary

    2019
    Recipient of the Gertrude Aston Bowater Bequest Award

    Permanent Collections
    Arts Council Collection, UK
    Surrey Art Gallery, Canada
    New Art Gallery Walsall, UK

    Publications and Texts
    Courses for Dis-Course(s), published by Primary and Jalebi Press ISBN: 978-1-7397790-3-0
    Launching August 2024
    Stages #12: Being in the World, Care Work, Published by Liverpool Biennial, ISSN 2399 9675 (link)
    Commissioned text in response to Emii Alrai’s ‘The Courtship of Giants’     (link)
    Nangal Pend-ing/DarkVillage.STL published by Primary, written by Sahjan Kooner and Roo Dhissou
    ISBN:     9781739779009
    A Very Special Place: Ikon in 1990’s Published by Ikon, ISBN: 9781911155294 (link)
    ArtLicks Issue 28 - The Idea of a City, Published by Art Licks ISSN:     2046-9349 (link)
    PMC Notes by Paul Mellon Centre - Cold Comfort and Cultural Identity (link)
    Book Review: Movers and Makers: Uncertainty, Resilience and Migrant Creativity in Worlds of Flux (link)

    Present Work
    Freelance Artist
    Visiting Lecturer - various universities 

    Previous Work

    2023
    Board Trustee, DASH Disability Arts, UK
    (2022- 2024)

    2023
    Board Trustee, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK
    (2020 - 2023)

    2022
    Lecturer in Critical Theory and Contextual Studies, BA 2nd Year, Birmingham School of Art
    (Sep 2022 - Dec 2022)

    2021
    Studio and Research Assistant to Dr Bharti Parmar
    (Mar 2021 - Oct 2021)
    Research Assistant, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK - funded by the Paul Mellon Centre
    (May 2021 - Sep 2021)
    Studio Teaching Assistant (MA), Birmingham School of Art, UK 
    (Oct 2020 - Aug 2021)

    2020
    Information Assistant, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK
    (Feb 2020 - Sep 2021)

    2019
    Various Managerial, Projects and Store Roles - Lidl GB
    (Sep 2012 - Feb 2020)

    Artist Collectives and Memberships

    COMRADES (2022- Present)
    SAAC South Asian Arts Collective (2019 - Present)
    Black Hole Club (2021 - 2023)
    New Midland Group NMG (2021 - 2022)
    Bhaina (2019 - 2022)

    Education
    BA hons, MA, PhD pending

    Contact
    Email roodhissou@gmail.com
    Twitter @roodhissou
    Instagram @roodhissou