Anthea Hamilton

Anthea Hamilton was born in London in 1978, where she lives and works. Hamilton’s interdisciplinary practice involves a variety of source material to create complex, performative installations. Her work frequently considers the lineage of certain materials and images, tracing their changeable sensitivities and meanings. This mode of research brings diverse material to a level plane, subverting conservative research methodologies, and questioning the remit of research itself.

Typically, Hamilton’s research is generated from oblique or subliminal connections between things: the subtext of an idea, the lineage of an image, or the adaptability of an object’s ontology, to explore the possibility of looking as a guiding mode of knowledge. This mines an array of subject matter including: Japanese kabuki theatre, 1970s disco culture, radical Italian design, editorial and documentary photography, as well as costume, lichen, and botany. The fundamental economy of Hamilton’s choice however, allows a simple image to work as a template, allowing the obvious nature of the material to transform and expand in meaning.

Hamilton’s consideration of a physical knowledge of images includes her use of the body as a protean resource. For instance, both Wavy Boot (2015-) and Leg Chairs (2010-2015) present the body in a deliberately steely, non-expressive though exaggerated form. Utilising mannequins, textile, and clothing, Hamilton neutralises the identifiable body, asserting itself without additional cultural signifiers. The aggravated collision of neutrality and sensation is a typical stroke of Hamilton’s, whose work often contains a visual or linguistic flip. Hamilton’s consideration of the body often disinvests an “essential self”, presenting instead, a sensually calibrated alternative for how a body may be understood.

Hamilton often produces site-specific installations, such as The New Life (2018) at Secession, Vienna; The Squash (2018) at Tate Britain, London; Lichen! Libido! Chastity! (2015) at SculptureCenter, New York. This elaborates Hamilton’s handling of space as material, creating immersive environments that disrupt perspective and amplify specific spatial properties. Oftentimes, this is generated from a material or pattern which forms one catalyst: tartan wallpaper, white tiles, or painted facsimile bricks.

Anthea Hamilton was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2016. Recent solo exhibitions include: Soft You, Fondazione Memmo, Rome, Italy (2025); Cold, Cold Heart, kaufmann repetto, Milan (2022); Mash Up, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Belgium (2022); Primetime, a commission by Hayward Gallery, London, England (2022); The Prude, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, England (2019); The New Life, Secession, Vienna, Austria (2018); The Squash, Tate Britain, London, England (2018); Anthea Hamilton Reimagines Kettle’s Yard, Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield, England (2017); Lichen! Libido! Chastity!, SculptureCenter, Long Island City, New York NY (2015); Kabuki, The Tanks, Tate Modern, London, England (2012); Sorry I’m Late, Firstsite, Colchester, England (2012); Les Modules, Foundation Pierre Berge — Yves Saint Laurent, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2012). Her work has been presented as part of the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019, the British Art Show 8 and in numerous international venues including the Schinkel Pavilion, Berlin (with Nicholas Byrne), the 13th Lyon Biennale, and the 10th Gwangju Biennale.