Dian Joy
British-Nigerian interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker based in London
Dian Joy works across video, installation, and extended reality, Joy’s practice explores the entanglement of biological and technological systems through a speculative, research-driven approach. Their work engages critically with the ever evolving terrain of selfhood in the digital era, frequently investigating how the mythological, the machinic, and the embodied intersect within contemporary culture. Bridging theory and praxis, at the core of Joy’s inquiry is an exploration of desire as a subjectivity-shaping force in a world increasingly governed by algorithmic and ideologically charged media. Through this lens, Joy examines the affective and material dimensions of otherness and power. Never indebted to a darkening horizon, their installations and moving image works cultivate spaces for collective reflection, asking how we indeed “make-sense” amid the ideological forces that shape contemporary life.
Dian holds an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, where they were awarded a UAL Academic Scholarship. Their work has been recognised through numerous awards and commissions, including the 2024 Hotel Generation Prize from Arebyte Gallery, the Moon Cinema filmmakers bursary from Tour de Moon, and a prototype AR producer commission for the nationwide immersive programme StoryTrails. In 2025, Dian was selected for the CPH:DOX Delegation through the BFI Doc Society Fund and will undertake a residency with the Earls Court Development Company later in the year — their second, following a residency with York Mediale’s Immersive Assembly programme in 2023. Their solo exhibition Alexandria’s Genesis opened at Arebyte Gallery in 2024/25, reflecting their continued exploration of media and identity formation. Dian’s work has been presented at Tate Britain Lates, the British Film Institute, Shijiazhuang Art Museum (CN), Galleri Q (DK), Juliette Jongma Gallery (NL), HOTEL AMAZONAS (IT), among others.