"Silk Cotton Jumbie" Drawing

Zoë Wilkinson (b. 1999) is a British-Caribbean artist. Born and raised in the UK, Wilkinson’s practice endeavours to create an imagined homeland between Guyana and Britain. Using family photographs, autofiction and tropical greenhouses, she makes her world tangible through charcoal and paint.



Drawing from her academic background in philosophy, Wilkinson uses Caribbean folklore to reinterpret the gothic beyond the western canon. These postcolonial approaches are made apparent through the use of non-traditional materials which recall legacies of indentured labour such as sugarcane fabric and charcoal, handmade from driftwood.



Wilkinson uses writing to build her imagined world which is an important part of her multidisciplinary practice. She is currently working on her debut novel which weaves philosophy and the Caribbean Gothic into a coming of age story. Wilkinson has twice been awarded a Break Through Writers of Colour scholarship from Curtis Brown Creative to aid in the writing of her novel.



Wilkinson has just completed her MA in Painting from The Royal College of Art for which she was grateful to benefit from the Sir Frank Bowling Scholarship. In 2025 she won a Hesketh Hubbard Bursary for life drawing and was shortlisted for the inaugural Jaguar x RCA prize. She recently won the annual Artiq residency at the Pump House in October 2026. Wilkinson holds an Honorary Fellowship at the University of Guyana, where she conducted a three month residency in 2026, funded by Arts Council England.