Biography
Katrina Palmer (b. London, UK 1967) originally studied for philosophy and English literature degree at Sussex University (1986-89) and then worked in the publishing industry for a decade. She later did an undergraduate sculpture degree at Central St Martins (2001-04) followed by an MA at the Royal College of Art (2004-06) where she completed her PhD in 2012. In 2024 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Sussex. Recent solo exhibitions include Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin (2018); Void, Derry (2016); Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2015). Recent group exhibitions include Tate Britain, London (2015); Hayward Gallery, London; Flat Time House, London (both 2014). She is an artist who uses words. Words are spoken, printed and sculpted into multi-dimensional journeys in time and space. Her publications include The Fabricators’ Tale (2014) and The Dark Object (2010) and End Matter (2015), published by Book Works. End Matter, commissioned by Artangel and BBC Radio 4, was set on the Isle of Portland, Dorset and was accompanied by a radio play, The Quarryman’s Daughters, and an audio walk around Portland, The Loss Adjustors.
In 2014, Palmer was awarded the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists and the Royal College of Art's Tom Bendhem Sculpture Award and in 2015 she was shortlisted for the Contemporary Art Society Annual Award. The Time Travelling Circus (2017) is the result of her research into Fanque and St George’s Fields, whilst she was in Leeds working on her exhibition The Necropolitan Line for the Henry Moore Institute (2015). She teaches at the Salde School of Fine Art, University Collge London and the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford. In 2024 Palmer was the National Gallery Artist in Residence, fourth in its current iteration of the programme in collaboration with the Contemporary Art Society, and with Touchstones Rochdale.
