Cornelia Parker RA

Born: 14 July 1956, Cheshire, England
Category of Membership: Sculptor
Elected: 8 December 2009

Cornelia Parker RA, 'The Fourth Estate, Reggie Kray's Funeral', 2010. C-type prints. Photo: John Bodkin/DawkinsColour Cornelia Parker studied at Gloucester College of Art (1974 – 1975), Wolverhampton Polytechnic, BA Hons (1975 – 1978) and Reading University, MFA (1980 – 1982)

She is well known for her large scale, often site specific, installations. Her engagement with the fragility of existence and the transformation of matter is exemplified in two key works: Dark Matter, a cartoon-like reconstruction of an exploded army shed, and Heart of Darkness, the formal arrangement of charred remains from a forest fire. There is an apocalyptic tone to much of her work but she also demonstrates a concern with the more insidious effects of global warming and consumerism.

Parker works in a variety of mediums and has collaborated with institutions such as HM Customs & Excise, Royal Armouries, Madame Tussauds and Victoria & Albert Museum, London. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1997. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2010.

Recent Solo Exhibitions
2013 Frith Street Gallery, London
2012 Galeria Carles Tache, Barcelona
Guangdong Museum of Art, China
2011 York St Mary’s, York
2010 Baltic, Gateshead
2008 Whitechapel Laboratory, London
Galleria Carles Tache, Barcelona, Spain
2007 IKON, Birmingham
2006 Brontean Abstracts, Bronte Parsonage Museum, Haworth, West Yorkshire
2005 Focus: Cornelia Parker, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas
New Work by Cornelia Parker, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, California
Subconscious of a Monument, Royal Insitiute of British Architects, London
DAmelio Terras, New York
Wurttembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, Germany
2004- 2005 Cornelia Parker: Installations from the Tate Collection, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Norwich
2004 Galeria Carles Tache, Barcelona, Spain
Finesilver Gallery, Project Space, San Antonio, Texas
2003 DAmelio Terras, New York, May 2003
Guy Bartschi Genenva
2002 Cornelia Parker, Frith Steret Gallery, London
2001 GAM, Galleria dArte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, Italy
2000 ICA Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Aspen Museum of Art, Colorado
Chicago Arts Club, Illinois
ICA Boston, Massachusetts

Selected Group Exhibitions
2008 Blown Away – The Artful Explosion, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois
2007 Projektion, Lenos Kunstmuseum, Linz
Says the junk in the yard, Flowers East, London
8th Sharjah Biennial
Collective One, Galerie Guy Bartschi
Living in the Material World, National Art Center Tokyo
The Shadow MAN Museo dArte Provincia di Nuoro
2006- 2007 the Shadow, Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea, sienna
You’ll Never Know, Hayward Gallery National touring exhibition
2006 Resonance, Frith Street Gallery, London
Thread, Ingleby Gallery
Projektion, Museum of Art, Luzem
Femme d’Europe, Saint Tropez
Irritation Des Gleischgewichs, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern
Cornelia Parker & Rob Smith, Royal Academy Schools Gallery, Hornsey
2005 – 2007 Body: New Art from the UK, British Council touring exhibition
2005 Water, Air, Earth, Ice. At the origins of life between Art and Science, Villa Croce Museum of Contemporary Art, Genova, Italy
The Real Ideal, Sheffield Galleries, Sheffield
Presence, Gimpel Fils, London
Bye-Bye blackboard..from Einstein and others, Museum of History of Science, Oxford
Think & Wonder, Wonder & Think, Museum of Childhood, London
In the Neighbourhood of Infinity, Sixteen:one Gallery, Santa Monica, California
2004 The West Wing, St. Bart’s and The London Breast Cancer Centre, London
Speaking with Hands: Photographs from the Buhl Collection, Guggenheim Museum, New York City Art Gallery, Prague
After Life, curated by Simon Morrissey, The Bowes museum
The Disembodied Spirit, Contemporary Art in Kansas City
2003 Pearl, London
Knockabout, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York
Days Like These: Tate Trienalle, Tate Britain, London
Stacked, DAmelio Terras, New York
Independence, South London Gallery
Boublures, Musee Du Quebec
On tour: Contemporary Art in Kansas City and Austin Museum of Art The Amory Show, New York
The Disembodied Spirit, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Maine
From Dusk to Dusk, Copenhagen Udstillingsbygning, Copenhagen, October
Between the Ears, Ventro de Arte de Salamanca
2002 Life is Beautiful, Laing Art Gallery, and Newcastle, UK
Pure Containment, Sculptures in the Collection, Arts Council of England, Orleans House Gallery
2001 2000: the end of century. The seeds of the future, Commune di Milano, Italy
The Silk Purse Procedure, Arnolfini Gallery and Spike Island, Bristol
Solid State: Reflections upon the Real, Kettles Yard, Cambridge
2000 British Art Part I, Diehi Vorderwuelbecke, Berlin
Studio Stefania Miscetti, Rome
Between Cinema and a Hard Place, Tate Modern, London
Interventions, Milwaulkee Art Museum, Wisconsin
Porcupines, 291 Gallery London

Selected Public Collections
Arts Council of Great Britain
British Council
British Museum
Contemporary Arts Society
Deutsche Bank
Glaxo Wellcome Collection
Government Art Collection
Henry Moore Foundation
ICA Boston
Leicestershire Council
MAG Collection, UK
Milwaukee Arts Museum, Wisconsin
MOMA, New York
Phoenix Art Museum
Tate Gallery
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Yale Center for British Art, USA

• Royal Academy of Arts