Hettie Inniss' work responds to multisensory influences and bodily experiences, capturing and preserving a moment inflected by scent, light, sound and memory. Inniss is an artist whose practice questions the stability of self. Her distinctive canvases seek to create spaces with their own physics, their own truths and their own multidimensional perspectives. Inniss’ vibrant colour palette allows her to articulate memory and the act of remembering – capturing the afterburn of an image or the light seen behind closed eyes with a warmth and physicality that brings a bodily presence into her canvases.
Working from her involuntary memories, Inniss takes a Proustian approach to making, focusing on the unexpected moments where our senses are stimulated and the mind transports us to familiar or uncanny spaces. Inniss’ unique response to multisensory stimuli in her work allows her to explore how a memory might taste or sound, and how she can capture these ineffable sensations in paint and texture. Her practice tests and resists the boundaries of representational painting, connecting to Inniss’ belief in Black Fluidity as a liberating approach to life and art.
Hettie Inniss (b. 1999, London, UK) lives and works in London (UK). Inniss is a British Caribbean artist who graduated from the Painting MA course at the Royal College of Art, London (UK) in 2023, and was awarded the Sir Frank Bowling Scholarship in 2022. Inniss has participated in multiple group exhibitions, including a duo presentation with Cece Philips, Digestif - [diːʒɛˈstiːf], Palazzo Monti, Italy (IT). The Tate Collective also commissioned her to create an artwork in response to a piece in their collection in October 2023.
This year, she has been included in the Artsy Vanguard 2025, an annual feature highlighting the most promising artists working today and will present a solo exhibition of new works at GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL) on view from October 24 – December 6, 2025.