Phoebe Collings-James

b. 1987 in London, UK

Lives and works in London, UK

Phoebe Collings-James’ works across media function as debris of knowledge, feeling, violence, language, and desire that result from 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.

Collings-James’ musical alias, young nettle, creates sound design for original music productions, the artist 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 rose, a bridge, a house, Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, London, UK (2026); Nature Boy, Albuquerque Foundation, Sintra, PT (2026); The subtle rules the dense, KINDL, Berlin, DE (2025); 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); Who Blows The Horn?, Picture Room, New York, US, (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 The Hole in the Whole, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK (2025); Body Vessel Clay, Ford Foundation Gallery, New York, US (2025); REVIVAL, Francesca Minini, Milan, IT (2025); 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); Unearthing: Memory, Land, Materiality, The Courtauld Gallery, London, UK (2023); Body Vessel Clay, Two Temple Place, London, UK (2022); York Art Gallery, York, UK (2022); Produktive Bildstörung. Sigmar Polke und aktuelle künstlerische Positionen, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, DE (2021); You Feel Me, FACT Liverpool, UK (2019), In Whose Eyes, Beaconsfield Gallery, London, UK (2018), Bust Wide Open, Harlem Postcards, Studio Museum Harlem, New York, US (2017).

Collings-James’ works are in major public collections including The Design Museum, London (UK); 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, US (2019), Sonic Acts, Amsterdam, NL (2019), Café Oto, London, UK (2019) and Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR (2018).