Shaqúelle Whyte (b. 2000, Wolverhampton) lives and works in London. He received a BA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art (2022) and an MA at the Royal College of Art (2023).
In his paintings, Whyte presents imagined spaces imbued with a sense of ambiguity that interrogate the human condition, all the while exploring the material qualities of the medium. Loosely rendered, energetic brushwork and an expansive approach to composition are hallmarks of the artist’s practice. Although non-linear, narrative plays a central role in Whyte’s work, which sees him carry certain motifs over from one painting to the next. These recurring details contribute to the sense of theatre that pervades his work; Whyte directs his subjects as though they are actors and his canvas a stage. Despite excluding himself from the work representationally, the stories he crafts reflect his everyday life and innermost thoughts. The figures in Whyte’s paintings act as conduits for his subconscious. Giving form to thought through paint, he generates a sense of introspection through his characters’ often averted or guarded faces. At once enigmatic and familiar, Whyte’s paintings evoke the surreal and shape the ephemeral, ultimately leaving his world open to the viewer’s own interpretation.
At Frieze London 2025, his work was selected for The Contemporary Art Society’s Frieze Collections Fund, establishing an acquisition by Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Similarly, at Frieze London 2024, his work was selected for acquisition by the Arts Council Collection. Other public collections include The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, made possible with the support of The Contemporary Art Society; and Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC.
Recent group shows include Being There, No 1 Royal Crescent, Bath (2024); Swimming, curated by Russell Tovey, GRIMM, Amsterdam (2024); Two x Two for AIDS and Art, The Rachofsky House, Dallas, TX (2024); and Present Tense, Hauser & Wirth, Somerset (2024). In 2024 Tate Britain presented a live conversation between the artist and art historian Alayo Akinkugbe.
In April 2026, he will have his first institutional solo exhibition at Wolverhampton Art Gallery. Other recent and upcoming solo exhibitions include Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London (2024; 2025) and White Cube, Hong Kong (2026). He is currently included in Roots in the Sky at HOME Manchester, curated by Tunji Adeniyi-Jones.