Permindar Kaur

Permindar Kaur’s artistic practice extends over more than three decades, during which time she has become one of Britain’s most original and innovative practitioner’s working in sculpture.  Known as much for her deft manipulation of materials including glass, metal, and colourful fabrics, as for her evocative explorations of home, childhood and personal recollections, Kaur’s work nevertheless defies easy categorization. Often deploying familiar forms derived from intimate worlds of domestic life, Kaur’s sculpture is however,  to some degree, analogous to the realm of the fairytale.  With its fusion of the real and the imaginary, distortions of scale and form, Kaur’s practice expounds a remarkable, even magical world. In its assemblage of familial and unfamiliar motifs, Kaur’s work is at once alluring and contemplative, quizzical and sometimes baleful. With its an unerring capacity for exploring and experimenting through various forms of ciphers, Kaur’s prodigious practice is an unremitting force in creative invention. One that inspires us to bring our own memories and recollections to bear on her inimitable domain of the strangely familiar.  (Richard Hylton)

Permindar Kaur is a British artist born in Nottingham to Sikh parents. Kaur is celebrated for her striking use of domestic and toylike forms coming to prominence in the 1990s. At that time, Kaur was loosely associated with both the YBA and Black British Art movements.

Kaur's solo exhibitions include Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton, UK (2026); Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, London, UK (2025) Lightbox, Woking, UK (2025); Frieze No 9 Cork Street, London, UK (2025); John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, UK (2024); Niru Ratnam Gallery, London, UK (2023); ArtHouse, Wakefield, UK (2022); New Art Projects, London, UK (2017); Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham, UK (2014); Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Nottingham, UK (1998); Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK (1996); Mead Gallery, Warwick, UK (1996); Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston, UK (1993).

Significant group exhibitions in the UK and internationally include The Box, Plymouth (2026 & 2022); Compton Verney, Warwickshire (2024/27); Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (2023); Yorkshire Sculpture Park ( 2021 & 2017); Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2021 & 1998);Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK (2018); Tate Gallery, London, UK (2000); Shizouka Arts Centre, Japan (1999); Hakata Riverain, Fukuoka, Japan (1999); Art Tower Mito, Mito, Japan (1997); Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK (1997); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia (1997); Queens Museum of Art, New York, USA (1997); University Museum of Ethnography, Oslo, Norway (1997); Caribbean Cultural Centre, New York, USA (1996); British Art Show 4, Manchester, Cardiff & Edinburgh, UK (1995); La Capella, Barcelona, Spain (1994); Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (1992); BBC Billboard Art Project, Glasgow, UK (1992); Arnolfini, Bristol, UK (1991).