Anya Gallaccio

Anya Gallaccio creates site-specific installations, often using organic materials as her medium. Past projects have included arranging a ton of oranges on a floor, placing a 32-ton block of ice in a boiler room, and painting a wall with chocolate. Due to the nature of these materials, her works undergo natural processes of transformation and decay, often with unpredictable results. In 2008, she moved from London to southern California, resulting in a shift in materials as she responded to the landscape of the western United States. Since then, she has become more focused on geological history and uses local rock species like limestone, sandstone, and granite as materials. Her work references the minimalist structure of artists like Carl Andre and Donald Judd as well as following artists such as Robert Smithson in the tradition of Land Art.

 

Gallaccio was born in Scotland and lived in London until 2008, when she moved to San Diego to join the faculty of the Visual Arts Department at the University of California, San Diego where she is now Faculty Emerita. She attended Kingston Polytechnic and Goldsmiths College at the University of London, and first gained public recognition in the late 1980s as part of a cohort of young artists brought together by the Freeze exhibitions in London, curated by Damien Hirst. Her permanent commissions are located at The Whitworth, Manchester, United Kingdom, Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh, Scotland; and Houghton Hall, Norfolk, United Kingdom.  Selected exhibitions and commissions include: Lindisfarne Castle, National Trust, Berwick-upon-Tweed (2018); Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego (2015); Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh (2014); Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany (2009); Sculpture Center, New York (2006) amongst others. Her works are held in public collections including: Arts Council, London; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Tate, London; and Seattle Art Museum, Seattle. In 2023, she was awarded the Kenneth Armitage Foundation fellowship in London and was nominated for the Turner Prize, resulting in a survey exhibition of her work at the Turner Contemporary in Margate in 2024. The same year, she was awarded the commission for London’s first HIV/AIDS Memorial. She now lives and works between San Diego and London.