I’m a multidisciplinary environmental artist, investigating the nature-culture continuum through examination of and immersion in a place.
I’m a multidisciplinary environmental artist, investigating the nature-culture continuum through examination of and immersion in a place.
I work with found natural and man-made materials, photography, film and sound, and pared-down aesthetic. Walking and mapping are integral to my research; narratives of place, time and human interactions with the non-human; communities and ecologies.
My practice considers the Anthropocene/Planthropocene, Deep Time and Vibrant Matter, examining ecological systems and phenomena in relation to the climate crisis. For several years I have been concerned with moss, soil, earth, peat, wildfires. I’ve focussed on peat moors and lowlands around Manchester; investigating their social, economic, and ecological context; exposing the nature of our relationship with our environment.
I’ve started using film and audio to examine our experience of the world and the turmoil we are grappling with. I’m currently exploring ideas about small-scale urban rewilding and sustainability at my studio at Rogue Artist’s Studios.
My work is entangled with the site-specific, deriving from particular qualities and characteristics of place, whether urban or rural. This develops into narrative, or leads to materials, intervention or image. My practice acknowledges that no place exists or evolves without the species and cultures that inhabit and shape it over time.
Sophy King CV
tel 0773 643 8161 email: [email protected] sophyking.com instagram @sophykingart
RECENT WORK
2021- Rogue Rewilding; addressing the biodiversity crisis
2022 Spark member;network addressing the climate crisis @sparkartistsnetwork
2022 Para-Lab member; science/art research collaborations
2021-22 SUSTAIN Digital Artist Exchange www.sustainartists.info
Digital residency with a focus on low-carbon artmaking; commissioned by Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK and Aarhus Billedkunstcenter, Aarhus, Denmark. Co-author of The Checklist – artists resource for low-carbon websites
AWARDS
2021 LBxan Artists Bursary www.biennial.com/blog
Bursary awarded by the Liverpool Biennial, a-n Artists Network and Open Culture to develop an audio-visual piece about water and open water swimming; Adjusted Horizons
2006 LANDSCAPE INSTITUTE AWARD L. Arch. GDip Exhibition, MMU
2005 BRONZE MEDAL Show Garden RHS Tatton Park
RESIDENCIES
2018-9 Moors for the Future, Edale Self-initiated Environmental Art Residency
embedded with MftF
2018 CAMP, Aulus-les-Bains, France Residency/workshop with Nils-Udo
2016 I-Park Foundation, Connecticut, USA Environmental Art Residency
2013 Our Museum Residency, Paul Hamlyn Foundation
EDUCATION
2019 MA Fine Art (Distinction), Manchester School of Art
2007 BLA Landscape Architecture, Manchester Metropolitan University
1992 BA(Hons) 3D Design (wood, metal, ceramics, glass) Manchester Polytechnic
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2022 PARALAB REPORT Seesaw Space, Manchester
2019 MA/MFA HOME, Manchester
2019 MANIFESTATION Rogue Project Space, Manchester
2019 CATALYST Grosvenor Gallery, Manchester
2019 BORDERLINE Co-curator and exhibitor, Leaf, Manchester
2017 MANIFEST 2017 ArtWork Atelier, Manchester
2017 PROOF II Robert Burt Gallery, London
2017 MONO PS Mirabel, Manchester
2016 OPEN STUDIOS I-Park Foundation, Connecticut, USA
2012 ALLERY GALLERY Co-curator: pop-up gallery and events, Manchester
SELECTED COMMISSIONS
2018 Talk to the Trees Community engagement, Lead Artist, Preston
2016 Birds of Passage Public Artwork, RSPB Sculpture Trail, Fairhaven Lake
2015 Reach Art Project Public Artwork design for Lytham St Anne Promenade
2013 Our Museum Participatory artwork, Paul Hamlyn Foundation
2003 DNA Public Artwork, Nuffield Hospital, Leeds
2000 Wave Public Artwork, Saltash, Cornwall
1998 Sundial Public Artwork, Mile End, London
