Lyndall Phelps

Lyndall Phelps was born in Casino and moved to the UK in 1999, where she lived for 20 years. She completed her Bachelor of Education in Art and MA’s in Art and Art Administration at the College of Fine Art, Sydney. She is currently undertaking a Doctor of Visual Arts at Griffith University, Brisbane.

Phelps is an artist whose curiosity in the world around her has shaped her artistic output. Describing herself as an enthusiastic amateur of many things, her art practice embraces extensive research and collaboration with a wide range of individuals whose interests reflect her own, from pigeon fanciers to radar scientists. Science, history and the natural world, particularly ornithology, botany and horticulture, are recurring themes. Her work combines a range of media including sculpture, photography, video, sound, textiles, ephemera, multiples and works on paper. These are often combined in installations which explore and celebrate particular contexts or specific sites. They are often playful, sometimes magical and at times surreal: a pigeon falls from the sky attached to a parachute and a taxidermy grey squirrel uses radar countermeasures for protection. She aims to invite a sense of wonder; that people experiencing her work will be curious and intrigued.

Solo exhibitions include Flutter, St Albans Museum + Gallery (2018); Covariance, Institute of Physics, London (2013); Softkill, University of Hertfordshire Galleries (2011); Touch, Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum (2010); Archival Scenarios, Barrington Court (2010); The Pigeon Archive, Milton Keynes Gallery (2009); Knit one purl one, Canary Wharf, London (2009) and Evacuate, Natural History Museum at Tring (2007).

She has created permanent public art commissions for Wirksworth Heritage Centre (2018); the University of Hertfordshire (2013); Elliott Chappell Health Centre, Hull (2013); Wilberforce Heath Centre, Hull (2011) and King’s Lynn, Norfolk (2007). Phelps’ work is represented in Arts Council England, East’s Art Collection; Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum’s Medicate Collection and the University of Hertfordshire Art Collection.