British-Caribbean artist Sonia Boyce has a résumé stacked with firsts. When Tate acquired her drawing Missionary Position II (1985) in 1987, she became the first Black woman to enter its permanent collection. In 2016, the Royal Academy of Arts elected her to its ranks, making her the first Black female academician in its 248-year history. And in early 2020, it was announced that Boyce would represent Britain at the 2022 Venice Biennale, making her the first Black woman to receive that honor. In her work, she moves fluidly between disciplines, from drawing and printmaking to photography and performance. She has explored the intersection of race, class, and gender since the 1980s, when she was part of Britain’s groundbreaking Black arts movement. Improvisation and collaboration—whether with sound artists and singers, as was the case at her 2018 Manchester Art Gallery retrospective, or with dancers, the stars of her 2017 show at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts—are long-standing hallmarks, used as tools for creative storytelling and community building. Boyce is featured in The Artsy Vanguard 2020.