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Sophy King

email: sophking@hotmail.com

tel: 07736438161

 

I am a multidisciplinary environmental artist exploring the nature–culture continuum through deep engagement with place. Working across installation, film, and sound, my practice interrogates how we experience and relate to the world around us.

 

Rooted in the contexts of the Anthropocene and Planthroposcene, my work engages with ideas of Deep Time and Vibrant Matter, examining ecological systems and phenomena in the face of the climate crisis. Over recent years, I have been drawn to moss, fungi, earth, peat, wildfires, and water—as both material and subject. My research has focused on the moors and lowlands around Manchester, investigating their social, economic, and ecological dynamics while probing our entangled relationship with the environment. Through this, I explore possibilities for urban rewilding and sustainable futures.

 

After seeing the world through a lens of personal and ecological grief, I am now embracing hope and the concept of Thrutopia as a way to imagine radical, transformative alternatives to our current systems. I am interested in reimagining the ecoverse, our societal structures, and economic models through speculative, restorative lenses. Central to my practice is a commitment to low-carbon artmaking, guided by considered choices around materials and technologies.

 

As The Guardians of Living Matter, my ongoing collaboration with artist John-Paul Brown, we are currently developing a major multimedia exhibition across four galleries at The Lowry, Salford.

RECENT/ongoing/UPCOMING

 

2024-26         Guardians of Living Matter

                             Collaborative exhibition of commissioned work with John-Paul Brown at the LOWRY, Salford in Spring 2026

Aug 2024      Offering to the Gods [Tanrilara Sunmak]

                             A site-specific landscape installation, commissioned by the Kommagene Biennale, Turkiye

Jun 2024      The Ground Beneath Our Feet

                            Group Exhibition- The Old Timber Yard, Dorset

Jan 2024      SPARK-Artists Interventions in a time of crisis [co-curated with John-Paul Brown]

                            Exhibition of 30 SPARK (environmentally focused North-West network) artists and associated events     

2022-24         Para-Lab [science/art research collaborations]

                            Working groups ‘Moss Colliding’ looking at the confluence of ecology and particle physics and ‘Soil Core’ investigating                                 soil ecology and archives at the UK Centre of Ecology and Hydrology

 

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

                          Residency & Exhibition addressing Extraction; commissioned by Groundwork Gallery and The Grange Projects

2021-22       SUSTAIN Digital Artist Exchange www.sustainartists.info

                          Digital residency with focus on low-carbon artmaking; commissioned by Castlefield Gallery and Aarhus Billedkunstcenter

2018-9         Moors for the Future, Edale Environmental Art Residency

2018             CAMP, Aulus-les-Bains, France Residency/workshop with Nils-Udo

2016             I-Park Foundation, Connecticut, USA Environmental Art Residency


 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2024           ROGUE WOMEN 3 Manchester Contemporary

2024           ROGUE WOMEN 3 Rogue Artists Studios

2024           THE GROUND BENEATH OUR FEET II The Old Timber Yard, Dorset

2024           SPARK – Artist Interventions in a Time of Crisis Rogue Project Space, Manchester

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


 

COMMISSIONS AND PUBLIC ART

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

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, Lead Artist, Lytham St Annes

2003          DNA                                                                                    Public Artwork, Nuffield Hospital, Leeds

2000         Wave                                                                                   Public Artwork, Saltash, Cornwall

1998          Sundial                                                                              Public Artwork, Mile End, London


 

EDUCATION

2019         MA Fine Art (Distinction), Manchester School of Art

2006        GDip Landscape Architecture, Manchester Metropolitan University

1992         BA(Hons) 3D Design (wood, metal, ceramics, glass) Manchester Polytechnic

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