Tessa Farmer’s unique work has attracted worldwide attention and she has been called ‘one of the UK’s fastest rising artists’.

Born in Birmingham she currently lives in London having received both a BFA and an MFA from The Ruskin, University of Oxford. Subsequently, Farmer has been exhibited and collected widely both nationally and internationally, including at the Saatchi Gallery, London, the David Roberts Collection, London, The Museum of 21st Century Art, Kentucky and The Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania. In 2007 she was Artist in Residence at the Natural History Museum, London. Awards include selection for New Contemporaries in 2004, and a Royal British Society of Sculptors Bursary Award in 2005. In 2007 she was nominated for The Times/ The South Bank Show Breakthrough Award and in 2011 was awarded a Kindle Project 'Makers Muse Award'.


CV

1978 Born in Birmingham, England


EDUCATION

2002-2003
MFA in Fine Art, Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University
1997-2000
BFA (Hons) in Fine Art (First Class), Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University


SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2012
From the Deep, Millennium

2011
The Coming of The Fairies, Viktor Wynd Fine Art, London

2011
ISAM: Control Over Nature; collaboration with Amon Tobin, Crypt Gallery, London

2011
Nymphidia, Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art, London

2008
Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York

2007
Little Savages, Natural History Museum, London
Infestation, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff

2006
The Terror, Firstsite, Colchester

2002
Touch Wood, Rochester Art Gallery, Rochester


SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2011
Lafcadio's Revenge (with Dana Sherwood and Nina Nichols), New Orleans, USA
Mindful, The Old Vic Tunnels, London
Inaugural exhibition, Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Tasmania, Australia
The Charter of The Forest, The Collection, Lincoln Art Gallery
House of Beasts, Attingham Park (National Trust), Shrewsbury
Enchanted Garden, Flower Fairies and Dark Tales, Mottisfont Abbey (National Trust), Hampshire

2010
Cabinet, John Martin Gallery, London
The Witching Hour, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Water Hall), Birmingham
Newspeak: British Art Now: Part Two, Saatchi Gallery, London (October)
Provenance (Exhibition and Symposium), Corsham Court, Bath (October)
Revelation Film Festival (screening of An Insidious Intrusion and Nest of the Skeletons), Perth, Australia (July)
Fairytales: The Surreal House, Barbican, London: 10th June- evening screening of An Insidious Intrusion
Larger than Life Stranger than Fiction, Eleventh Triennial of small scale sculpture, Fellbach, Germany
Oasis, Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, Bury St Edmunds
Dead or Alive, Museum of Arts and Design, New York
Extraordinary Measures, Belsay Hall, Northumberland
East Wing IX: Exhibitionism, The Courtauld Institute, London (until July 2011)

2009
Newspeak, British Art Now, The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia
Small Moments of Fantastic Things, Galerie Antje Wachs, Berlin, Germany
Pestival, South Bank Centre, London
Slump City, Space Studios, London
Breaking New, Five Hundred Dollars, London

2008
Riddle Me, Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London, UK
Wrap Your Troubles in a Dream, curated by Power Ekroth, Lautom Gallery, Oslo, Norway
In Transit, Ladbroke Grove, London
Animal Magic, Eleven, London, UK
Tatton Park Biennial, Knutsford, UK
LOCKED IN:The Visible, Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Gothic, Fieldgate Gallery, London

2007
The Future Can Wait, Atlantis Gallery, London, UK
Growing Wild, Andreiana Mihail Gallery, curated by Jane Neal, Bucharest, Romania
Am Schlimmsten: nicht im Sommer sterben, Nassauische Kunstverein, Wiesbaden ,Germany

2006
Repatriating the Ark, Museum of Garden History, London
Miniature Worlds Jerwood Space, London
The Mouse that Roared, Project 133, London
Where the Wild Things Are, Imperial College, London

2005
The Unlimited Dream Factory, The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle
Radar, Empire Gallery, London
Thinking the Unthinkable, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland
New Sculpture, Museum 52, London
The Young Ones, Said Business School, Oxford

2004
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, The Barbican, London
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, The Coach Shed, Liverpool

2002
Tweede Natuur, Lia Schelkens Sculpture Gallery, Antwerp


AWARDS & COMMISSIONS

2011
The Kindle Project Makers Muse Award

2007
Arts Council England award for residency at the Natural History Museum, London
The Times/South Bank Show Breakthrough Award (nominated)

2005
RBS Bursary Award

2004
Bloomberg New Contemporaries

2002
AHRB Award for Postgraduate Study

2001
Sculpture residency for Stour Valley Arts in King's Wood, Challock

2000
Vivien Leigh Prize, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

1999
Short-listed for Pirye Prize, Oxford University Press


COLLECTIONS

Saatchi Collection, London
David Roberts Collection, London
Libeert Collection, Belgium
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (drawing)
Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania, Australia
21st Century Museum, Kentucky, USA