Date and country of birth

1978, GB

About the artist

Born 1978 London, Heather Phillipson lives and works in London. Graduated from BA Art & Aesthetics at UWIC (2001); PG Cert Drawing at Central St Martins (2003); and PhD Fine Art practice at Middlesex University (2007).

Audacious and disconcerting, Phillipson’s expansive, multimedia projects include video, sculpture, installation, music, poetry, drawings and digital media. Described by the artist as ‘quantum thought experiments’, her works often carry a latent sense of threat – a feeling that received ideas, images and the systems that underpin them may be on the verge of collapse.

Her work is held in a number of public and private collections including the Arts Council Collection.

Selected solo exhibitions include RUPTURE NO 1: blowtorching the bitten peach, Duveen Galleries commission, Tate Britain, London (2021); THE END, The Fourth Plinth commission, Trafalgar Square, London (2020); THE AGE OF LOVE, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2018); and my name is lettie eggsyrub, Art on the Underground, Gloucester Road Underground Station, London (2018). Selected group exhibitions include British Art Show, UK touring (2021-22); Sharjah Biennial 14 (2019); Garden of Earthly Delights, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (2019); and I Was Raised on the Internet, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2018).

Awards and residencies include Artist in Residence for Outset Study Room at Drawing Room (2017); the Film London Jarman Award (2016); and the European Short Film Festival selection from the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2018). Phillipson is also an award-winning poet.