Penny Davis, born 1977, Portsmouth, UK.
Education
2019-present
Loughborough University - Practice based PhD in feminist making and doing
2009 - 2016
University of Gloucestershire – Practice based PhD in sculpture (incomplete)
2005-2006
Institute of Education, London – PGCE in post-compulsory education.
2001 - 2003
Slade School of Art (UCL) - MFA Fine Art Sculpture
2000 - 2001
MA Art Theory (first year only) - Chelsea College of Art and Design (now University of the Arts London)
1996 - 1999
Chelsea College of Art and Design (now University of the Arts London)
BA Hons Fine Art Sculpture
1995 - 1996
Wimbledon School of Art, London – BTEC Foundation Art and Design
Solo Exhibitions
2012
'Intrauterine Atelier' @ Meantime Project Space, Cheltenham, UK
2012
'Almost' @ Art and Photography Gallery, Hardwick Campus, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, UK
2010
'Separation Anxiety' @ The Great Central Gallery, Leicester, UK
2007
Domestic Archaeology’ @ de Montfort Hall, Leicester, UK
2005
‘Penny & Eric: Part 2 What are you thinking?’, Space Station 65 Gallery, East Dulwich, London
2005
‘Mi Art 2005’, Fiera Milano International, Milan, Italy; with Modern Culture, NY.
2005
‘Penny & Mum’, Sue Whitehouse Accounting Bureau, Portsmouth, UK
2003
‘Being an Artist’, 166-8 Clerkenwell Road, London, UK
Group Exhibitions
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2024
'Summer Contemporary' Britten Pears Arts, Snape Maltings, Snape, UK.
'Nine Lives' The Red Lion, Leytonstone Arts Trail, Leytonstone, London, UK.
2023
‘Do you hear us…are you listening?’ (online exhibition) @ Spilt Milk Gallery, Edinburgh, UK
Do you hear us...are you listening?
‘Practices of Care’ @ Fine Art Gallery, Loughborough University, UK.
2020
'LANDED' @ Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK.
2019
'Two Queens Members Exhibition' @ Two Queens Gallery, Leicester, UK.
2018
'A Sensual Aggression' @ St Anne's Galleries, East Sussex, UK
2015
'Pink is a Problem' @ Make and the Craft Kitchen, Fratton, Portsmouth, UK.
2012
'Connect' @ Embrace Arts, Richard Attenborough Centre, Leicester, UK
2011
'Thirty five milliseconds' @ The Great Central Gallery, Leicester, UK
2009
'Pattern Recognition' @ The City Gallery, Leicester, UK
2009
'By Appointment Only' @ 279 Mary Street, B12 9RS
2007
‘Stuff Happens’ @ Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham, UK (curated by Leo Fitzmaurice)
2006
‘History’ @ The New Walk Museum, Leicester, UK
2005
‘Open Studios 2005’, Portsmouth Artspace, Portsmouth.
2005
‘Summer of 10019’, Modern Culture, 730 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10019 USA.
2005
‘England Expects’, Portsmouth City Museum.
2004
‘Affair’ @ the Jupiter Hotel, Portland, Oregon, USA
2004
‘Skowhegan Projects’ (mobile gallery), Skowhegan, Maine, USA
2004
‘Category B’, The Empire, London, UK
2004
‘Arrivals’, Pump House Gallery, London, UK
2004
‘Lost Space’, The Phoenix Garden, London, UK
2002
‘Arte Mare’, Knokke-Heist, Knokke, Belgium
2002
‘Slade Graduates’, Enjoy-work.com, Chiswick, London, UK
2000
‘Blue Cube’, Brockwell Lido, Herne Hill, London, UK
2000
‘Art in the Park’, Herne Hill, London, UK
1999
‘Articultural Show’, Jibby Beane Graduates Stall, Royal Festival Hall, London, UK
Residencies
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Digital Arts Residency at The Creative and Virtual Technologies Research Lab, Nottingham Trent University. September - December 2018.
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The Motherhouse Stroud, Stroud, UK August 2017
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Cyprus College of Art, Cyprus March 2017
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Artist Residency in Motherhood 2017 - 2019
Edward F Albee Foundation, New York, USA – August 2005
AA2A Residency @ Portsmouth University, UK – 2004 – 2005
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine, USA – Jun – Aug 2004
Commissions
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Public Art Commission for ‘Arte Mare’ – Knokke, Belgium Commissioned by the Council of Knokke-Heist
Public Collections
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The Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, Portland, Oregon
(work is also held by private collectors)
Awards
​Shortlisted for the Mother Art Prize in 2022
Dennis Holt Travel Award 2020 and John Phillips Travel Award 2020 (Awarded by Loughborough University to travel to the Getty Institute to access the Mary Kelly archives).
Arts Council England Artist Development Grant – 2010 for sculpture exhibited at The Great Central Gallery, Leicester.
Skowhegan Travel Scholarship (Awarded to travel to the US to undertake the Skowhegan Residency in 2004).
Memberships
Member of MAIA (Loughbrough University), Womens Higher Education Network and FemPeak.
Conferences
Drawing Flesh Work Online Presentation - 7th June 2023
Spaces of Care with Assunta Ruocco and Belinda Mitchell (chaired by Serena Smith)
Drawing in Relation Series 2023
DRN2023 Drawing in Relation: Spaces of Care Recording – DRAWING RESEARCH NETWORK (lboro.ac.uk)
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Chaired the presentations for Affect and Agency on 19th April 2023 with Joanna Leah, Kiera O’Toole and Camille Courier & Laura Winn - Drawing in Relation Series 2023
DRN2023 Drawing in Relation: Affect & Agency Recording – DRAWING RESEARCH NETWORK (lboro.ac.uk)
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Challenges Mothers Face in Academia co-written and co-presented paper with Natalie Bruvels (PhD candidate – York University, Toronto)
Mothering and Motherhood on the Home Front - IAMAS conference March 2023 https://iamas.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/IAMAS-ConfBrochure-DRAFT020123.pdf
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Chaired the presentation for A More Than Human World on 22nd June 2022 with Jan Hogan, Lucia Cunnigham and Anka Makrzanowska -Ecologies of Drawing in 20222
DRN Ecologies of Drawing: A More Than Human World Recording – DRAWING RESEARCH NETWORK (lboro.ac.uk)
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Out of the flames and into the fire: Drawing the effects of the pandemic on a single parent family under the pseudonym ‘Fred P Lawrence’ at the ‘Learning from the Pandemic: Possibilities for Mothers and Families’ conference in 2021.
https://vepimg.b8cdn.com/uploads/vjfnew/7011/content/docs/1651079714learning-from-the-pandemic-program-pdf1651079714.pdf
I
am she and she is I (Woven quilt square exhibited in Domestic Academics Quilt Project by Vanessa Marr at Loughborough University).
I exhibited under the pseudonym Fred P Lawrence. Quilt now touring UK at University Galleries. I co-curated an exhibition of the quilt at Loughborough University in 2022 at Martin Hall Gallery.
https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/thedomesticacademics/2021/03/30/welcome/
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Autoethnographic Drawing: visualising epiphanic narratives of maternal embodiment as single mother
Presented at the Missing Mother Conference, University of Bolton, April 20-23 2021
https://themissingmother.wordpress.com/
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'Let's Get Dirty' Symposium at Loughborough University (online) October 2020
https://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/aed/news-events/events/2020/lets-talk-dirty.html
Presentation on: 'Doin' ya mom' (medusa memes)
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‘Gender Generation’ RCA 8/9 September 2016
http://gendergeneration.rca.ac.uk/
Presentation on: ‘A Mother’s Verb List’
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Publications
Orchid ID - 0000-0003-3239-1731
Davis, P. (2023) “Drawing (Out) the Evil (M)other of the Family Court”, Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, 14(1), p. 30. Available at: https://jarm.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/jarm/article/view/40681 (Accessed: 20 October 2023).
Book Review on Performance Drawing: New Practices since 1945 (2020) eds. Maryclare Foa, Jane Grisewood, Birgitta Hosea and Carali McCall. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Drawing (Journal): Research, Theory, Practice. Volume 6, Issue 2, 2021.
https://www.intellectbooks.com/drawing-research-theory-practice
Presented drawing and text for Maternal Art Magazine Issue 1 ‘Stay at Home’ June 2020
https://maternalart.com/issue-one
Interviews
Live interview with Helen Sargent on Instagram 4th December 2020 as part of the ‘Tea with MAM’ podcast series. https://www.instagram.com/maternalart/
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