(1975 - )
Lucy Skaer was born in 1975, in Cambridge. She studied for a BA with Honours in Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art from 1993 to 1997. She is a member of Henry VIII’s Wives – a collective of artists founded in 1997 – based variously in Scotland, Norway and Germany, all of whom graduated from the Environmental Arts department at Glasgow School of Art.
In 2003, Skaer was shortlisted for the Beck's Futures Prize. In 2008, at London’s Chisenhale Gallery, her installation 'The Siege' displayed images and objects depicting the English landscape, British Empire and Neolithic monuments. In 2009, Skaer was shortlisted for the prestigious Turner Prize for her sculptures 'Black Alphabet' (26 sculptures made of coal dust in the shape of Constantin Brancusi's 'Bird in Space') and 'Leviathan Edge', an installation which included the skull of a sperm whale, drawings and sculptures.
Skaer has made a number of 16mm films with the British artist Rosalind Nashashibi including 'Flash in the Metropolitan', made in the Museum of Art in New York in 2006. Skaer’s solo presentations include a mid-career retrospective at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh, ‘The Siege’ at the Chisenhale (both 2008) and a major show at Kunsthalle Basel 2009, for which she was nominated for the Turner Prize. Other shows include ‘Scene, Hold, Ballast’ at the Sculpture Center New York, ‘Force Justify’, Kunsthalle Vienna and (with collaborator Rosalind Nashashibi) ‘Spies in the House of Art’ at the Metropolitan Museum, New York (all 2012). Skaer lives and works in New York.
