Polly Morgan (taxidermist)

Polly Morgan (born 1980) is a London-based British artist who uses taxidermy to create works of art.[1][2][3][4]

Polly Morgan
Born1980 (age 39–40)
Banbury
EducationGeorge Jamieson, Edinburgh
Known forTaxidermy
Notable work
Rabbit on Hat
For Sorrow
Still Life After Death (fox)
WebsitePolly Morgan Website

Biography

Polly Morgan was born in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England in 1980,[5] and grew up in the Cotswolds on her family farm, and mentions a lack of squeamishness about death as well as being comfortable with the practice of dealing with the corpses of animals.[6] She moved to East London in 1998 and continues to live there today.[5] Morgan graduated from Queen Mary, University of London, in English Literature in 2002.[4]

During her studies, Morgan worked at Shoreditch Electricity Show Rooms, a bar popular with artists; after graduation, she continued to work there as manager.[2] At 23 Morgan was living above the bar and working out of her apartment, "tinkering with taxidermy."[6] Inspired to create work of her own she took a course with the professional taxidermist George Jamieson, of Cramond, in Edinburgh, during which her intuitive and personal response to the medium were obvious.[4] Morgan's first pieces were commissioned by Bistrotheque, after which she was spotted by Banksy: A lovebird looking in a mirror; a squirrel holding a belljar with a little fly perched inside on top of a sugar cube; a magpie with a jewel in its beak; and a couple of chicks standing on a miniature coffin'.[7][2] In 2005, he invited her to show her work for Santa's Ghetto, an annual exhibition he organized near London's Oxford Street.[4] Her next piece, a white rat in a champagne glass, was exhibited at Wolfe Lenkiewicz's Zoo Art Fair in 2006 and was purchased by Vanessa Branson.[7][8][2] Morgan works from a Bethnal Green studio.[1]

Morgan is a member of the UK Guild of Taxidermists.[4] The animals used in her taxidermy are contributed by a network of clients; the animals Morgan uses have died naturally or had unpreventable deaths.[6] She maintains a detailed log of all dead animals in stock.[9]

Morgan believes that those who consider her work disrespectful or cruel to animals are "childish," and that anthropomorphizing the animals she uses is meaningless.[6] Her work emphasizes and displays animals in a way nontraditional to taxidermy, putting the animals in positions which do not generally imply that they are still alive, rather emphasizing the dying fall of the animal.[10]

Personal

As a result of a ruptured appendix when she was 31, Morgan became infertile and has spoken out to try to end the public stigma against talking out about in-vitro fertilization.

Exhibitions

Notable exhibitions include:[11]

  • Still Life After Death, 2006 at Kristy Stubbs Gallery
  • The Exquisite Corpse, 2007 at Trinity Church, 1 Marylebone Road
  • You Dig the Tunnel, I'll Hide the Soil, 2008 at White Cube
  • Mythologies, 2009 at Haunch of Venison
  • The Age of the Marvellous, 2009 at All Visual Arts[12]
  • Psychopomps, 2010 at Haunch of Venison
  • Contemporary Eye: Crossovers, 2010 at Pallant House Gallery
  • Passion Fruits, 2011 at ME Collectors Room
  • Burials, 2011 at Workshop Venice
  • Dead Time, 2011 at Voide, Derry
  • Endless Plains, 2012 at All Visual Arts[13]
  • 10,000 Hours, 2012 at Kunstmuseum Thurgau[14]
  • Foundation/Remains, 2013 at The Office Gallery, Nicosia, Cyprus
  • The Nature of the Beast, 2013 at The New Art Gallery, Walsall
  • Beasts of England, Beasts of Ireland, 2013 at VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art
  • Curiouser and Curiouser, 2014 at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery
  • Fates Refrain, 2014 at Robilant + Voena Gallery
  • Organic Matters, 2015 at The National Museum of Women in Art[15]
  • Dead Animals and the Curious Occurrence of Taxidermy in Contemporary Art, 2016 at David Winton Bell Gallery - Brown University[16]
  • Animal Farm, Beastly Muses and Metaphors, 2016 at S|2 GALLERY[17]
  • Daydreaming With Stanley Kubrick, 2016 at Somerset House
  • 5 Years at Heddon Street, 2016 at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery
  • Faith and Fathom, 2016 at Galleria Poggiali
  • Naturalia, 2017 at Paul Kasmin Gallery
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See also

References
  1. Collinge, Miranda (18 July 2010). "Polly Morgan's wings of desire". The Observer. Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  2. Lane, Harriet (5 April 2008). "Polly Morgan: dead clever". The Telegraph. Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  3. Ryan, Denise (23 October 2009). "An 'authentic encounter' with the animals". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  4. Philby, Charlotte (16 July 2010). "Death becomes her: Meet Polly Morgan, Britart's hottest property". The Independent. Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  5. "Biography – Polly Morgan". pollymorgan.co.uk. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  6. "Polly Morgan: death becomes her". Evening Standard. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  7. Praagh, Anna van (9 July 2010). "The art of taxidermy". Financial Times. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
  8. "TALK: with taxidermy artist Polly Morgan". Messums Wiltshire. 20 March 2018. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  9. Morgan, Polly. "Introduction to Polly Morgan". Self published. Retrieved 24 July 2010.
  10. Connor, Steven. "Such Stuff as Dreams are Made on." Modern Painters 21, no. 2 (03, 2009): 58-63. http://stevenconnor.com/stuff/stuff.pdf.
  11. "Exhibitions – Polly Morgan". pollymorgan.co.uk. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  12. "All Visual Arts - The Age of the Marvellous - Selected Works". www.allvisualarts.org.
  13. "All Visual Arts - Endless Plains - Selected Works". www.allvisualarts.org.
  14. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 August 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. "Organic Matters - National Museum of Women in the Arts". nmwa.org.
  16. "Dead Animals, or the curious occurrence of taxidermy in contemporary art". www.brown.edu.
  17. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 14 March 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

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