Photo of Grenville Davey

Grenville Davey

Turner Prize-winning sculptor

Main details

Year graduated 1985
Department Art
Programme BA (Hons) Fine Art

Grenville Davey graduated from Goldsmiths in 1985, and his first solo exhibition, at the Lisson Gallery in London, followed two years later. Influenced by the work of sculptors such as Tony Cragg and Richard Deacon, his work involves producing objects that are “at once familiar but on closer inspection elusive and impossible to put in context”. He has continually explored the relationship between objects and everyday life, and that between minimalism and functionality. In 1992 Davey won the Turner Prize for his sculpture entitled HAL, a work of two abstract steel objects, exhibited at the Lisson Gallery. 

Davey’s work has been exhibited extensively both in Britain and abroad, and he is often engaged in collaborations between arts, community and science. In 2010 he was a resident artist at the physics department of Queen Mary, University of London, working in partnership with scientists in theoretical physics and string theory.

In 2012, Davey took up a residency at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences. In the same year he collaborated with the Royal College of Art by hosting an art workshop with the local community as part of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games. It resulted in a permanent installation which remains in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.

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