Sophy King
My interest in ecosystems led me to plants, moss and fungi as sculptural medium and subject. This human/non-human collaboration challenges me; I compose structure, but relinquish control as the agency of living materials supersedes my proposition.
I’m involved in collective, collaborative relationships; filming and recording wild swimming with a group of women since lockdown; Mossworlds (multidisciplinary research project with University of Manchester academics); the SPARK Artist’s Network; & Para-Lab (collaboration between artists & scientists). I’ve recently had a major institutional collaborative exhibition as The Guardians of Living Matter at LOWRY, Salford concerning AI & Plant Intelligence
My work is entangled with the site-specific, developing into narrative, or leading to material, intervention or image; acknowledging that no place exists without the species and cultures that shape it.
I explore Radical Hope & Thrutopias as approaches to the ecoverse. I promote lower-carbon art-making, through material choice & careful consideration of technology.
Lived Experience
Originally trained in 3D Design, I worked as a glassblower, art fabricator, set-builder, prop-maker and Landscape Architect whilst winning commissions to create art in the public realm around the UK. I developed my studio practice further with an MA in Fine Art at MMU in 2019 and a bursary to explore filmmaking from the Liverpool Biennial, since when I have been exhibiting and making site-specific work nationally and internationally.
RECENT PROJECTS
2026 Guardians of Living Matter, major collaborative duo exhibition of new work with John-Paul Brown at, LOWRY, Salford. Commissioned by Lowry's Developed With programme
2024 Thresholds, Site-specific Installation commissioned by The Whitaker Museum, Rossendale
2024-ongoing Mossworlds Multidisciplinary moss research project with academics at University of Manchester
2023 Groundwork Gallery: Extraction Residency #thegroundbeneathourfeet Program of residencies and exhibitions addressing Extraction, in association with Groundwork Gallery and The Grange Projects; aiming to foster collaborations and future environmentally focussed projects in the Norfolk region
2022-ongoing Para-Lab; science/art research collaborations Working groups ‘Moss Colliding’ looking at the confluence of ecology and particle physics and ‘Soil Core’ investigating the ecology of soil and archives at the UK Centre of Ecology and Hydrology
2022-24 Rogue Rewilding - Interventions to increase biodiversity around Rogue Artists Studios and the wider Gorton community.
AWARDS
2023 Meadow Arts Commission Award, Worcester Open Climate Change Edition
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.
2006 Landscape Institute Award Landscape Architecture GDip Exhibition, MMU
RESIDENCIES
2023 Groundwork Gallery: Extraction Residency #thegroundbeneathourfeet Program of residencies and exhibitions addressing Extraction, in association with Groundwork Gallery and The Grange Projects; aiming to foster collaborations and future environmentally focussed projects in the Norfolk region
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.
2018-9 Moors for the Future, Edale Environmental Art Residency
2018 CAMP, Aulus-les-Bains, France; Residency alongside Nils-Udo
2016 I-Park Foundation, Connecticut, USA Environmental Art Residency
COMMISSIONS
2024 Offering to the Gods Site-specific landscape installation, commissioned by the Kommagene Biennale, Turkiye
2024 Thresholds Site-specific Installation commissioned by The Whitaker Museum, Rossendale
2023 The Museum of the Vibrant Collector Installation and animation commissioned by Groundwork Gallery, King’s Lynn
2022 The Checklist Resource for artists to lower website’s carbon emissions commissioned by Castlefield Galleryfocused
2019 Talk to the Trees Community engagement, Lead Artist, Preston
2016 Birds of Passage Public Artwork, RSPB Sculpture Trail, Fairhaven Lake
2014 Reach Art Project Community Engagement for Lytham St Annes Promenade
2003 DNA Public Artwork, Nuffield Hospital, Leeds
2000 Wave Public Artwork, Saltash, Cornwall
1998 Sundial Public Artwork, Mile End, London
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2026 Storytellers+Machines, conference and exhibition at MMU's School of Digital Arts; as Guardians of Living Matter
2026 Guardians of Living Matter, major collaborative duo exhibition of new work with John-Paul Brown at, LOWRY, Salford.
2023-24 SPARK-Artists Interventions in a time of crisis; Curator SPARK is a network of environmentally focused artists in the North-West supported by Castlefield Gallery. John-Paul Brown and I curated an exhibition of 30 SPARK artists with associated events @sparkartistsnetwork
2023 THE GROUND BENEATH OUR FEET Groundwork Gallery, Norfolk
2023 CLIMATE.EMERGENCY.HOPE The Turnpike Gallery, Leigh
2023 WORCESTER OPEN The Art House/Pitt Studio, Worcester
2022 PARALAB REPORT Seesaw Space, Manchester
2019 MA/MFA HOME, Manchester
2017 PROOF Robert Burt Gallery, London
2016 RESIDENCE(residents) I-Park Foundation, Connecticut, USA
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
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