Phoebe Collings-James

Phoebe Collings-James’ (b.1987 London, UK) works function as “emotional detritus”; speaking of knowledges of feelings, the debris of violence, language, and desire which are inherent to living and surviving within hostile environments. Her work spans across sculpture, sound, performance and installation, and unpacks the object as subject by giving life and tension to ceramic forms.

Colling-James’ musical alias, young nettle, creates sound design for original music productions and is a member of B.O.S.S., a QTIBIPOC sound system based in South London.

Collings-James also runs Mudbelly, a ceramics studio, shop and teaching facility offering free ceramics courses for Black people in London, taught by Black ceramicists.

Recent solo exhibitions include In Practice, SculptureCenter, New York, US (2024); bun babylon; a heretics anthology, Arcadia Missa, London, UK (2023); A Scratch! A Scratch!, Camden Art Centre, London, UK (2021); Relative Strength, Arcadia Missa, London, UK (2018), Expensive Shit, 315 Gallery, New York, US (2017), ATROPHILIA (with Jesse Darling) and Company, New York, UK (2016). Recent group exhibitions include Self Made: Reshaping Identities, Foundling Museum, London, UK (2024); Conversations, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK (2024); In and Out of Place. Land after Information 1992-2024, Kunstverein Hamburg, Hamburg, DE (2024); Oh téléphone, oracle noir (…), Le Magasin CNAC, Grenoble, FR (2023);Phantom Sculpture, Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, UK (2023); Unearthing: Memory, Land, Materiality, The Courtauld Gallery, London, UK (2023); Body Vessel Clay, Two Temple Place, London (2022); York Art Gallery, York (2022); Produktive Bildstörung. Sigmar Polke und aktuelle künstlerische Positionen, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf (2021); You Feel Me, FACT Liverpool, Liverpool (2019), In Whose Eyes, Beaconsfield Gallery, London (2018), Okey Dokey, Galerie Max Mayer, Düsseldorf (2017) and Bust Wide Open, Harlem Postcards, Studio Museum Harlem (2017). Phoebe’s works are in major public collections including Arts Council of England, London (UK); Kadist Foundation, Paris (FR); York Art Gallery, York (UK); Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton (UK). Performances and screenings include Getty Museum, LA (2019), Sonic Acts, Amsterdam (2019), Café Oto, London (2019) and Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2018).