About

Permindar Kaur’s artistic practice extends over more than three decades during which time she has become one of Britain’s most innovative artists.  Known as much for her deft manipulation of materials including glass, metal, and fabric, as for her evocative exploration of home, childhood, memory and cultural identity, Kaur’s practice defies easy categorisation. With its fastidious regard for scale and form, Kaur’s work is both alluring and contemplative.
(Richard Hylton)

Her Overgrown House (2020) is included in Compton Verney’s major new Sculpture in the Park project for 2024 alongside legendary sculptors such as Louise Bourgeoise and Helen Chadwick. Major solo exhibitions include Nothing is Fixed (2024) John Hansard Gallery, Southampton; Outgrown (2022), The ArtHouse, Wakefield; Home, 5 Howick Place, London (2020-21); Interlopers, University of Hertfordshire (2016); Hiding Out, Djanogly Art Gallery, Nottingham Lakeside Arts (2014) and Cold Comfort, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham & Mead Gallery, Coventry (1996).

Her work was recently included in the major Arts Council Collection show Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women since 1945 (Yorkshire Sculpture Park; Djanogly Gallery, University of Nottingham; Levinsky Gallery & The Box, Plymouth; Ferens Art Gallery, Hull and The New Arts Gallery, Walsall, 2021 – 2023) and If Not Now, When? Generations of Women in Sculpture in Britain, 1960 – 2022, Hepworth Wakefield and Saatchi Gallery, London (2023). At Home with Art, Tate & Hayward Touring (2000), featured Permindar’s Shower Curtain (2000).

Permindar Kaur completed her MA at Glasgow School of Art and lives and works in the UK.

Full CV

Photo © Brian Benson

Contact 

Contact: Email

Please contact DACS with any image and licensing requests via licensing@dacs.org.uk. A selection of images are also available to request via DACS

News

Mirror, Mirror. 27 June – 21 September 2025, Pitzhanger Gallery, London
Mirror, Mirror is the largest solo presentation of Permindar Kaur’s work in a London institution to date and will take place across the main gallery and the historic manor. Kaur’s installations use a visual language of toys, clothing, and shelter to explore how domestic settings shape individuals, and how identity and background relates to these things.
More info: Pitzhanger Gallery

Permindar Kaur: Mirror, Mirror and Prem Sahib: Doubles, Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, June 2025. Read here: Tincture of Museum

Permindar Kaur in conversation with Katherine Stout, Sept 2024, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton. As well as a detailed exploration into Kaur’s 2024 solo exhibition Nothing is Fixed, the conversation will cover Kaur’s work more widely, along with its broader context. The event will be chaired by John Hansard Gallery Senior Curator, Ros Carter, and followed by an audience Q&A.
Watch here: JHG

Staying with the ambivalence: an interview with Permindar Kaur, by Alina Khakoo, 26 Feb 2025. Published on ArtUK. Permindar Kaur (b.1965) is a sculptor known for her exploration of material and conceptual ambivalences. Since arriving on the British art scene at the turn of the 1990s, Kaur has paired softness with hardness, domesticity with threat, and the imposing with the invisible.
Read here: Art UK

Permindar Kaur: Strange Bedfellows. 15 November 2025- 01 February 2026. Lightbox, Woking.
Strange Bedfellows, an exhibition showcasing works by Permindar Kaur, alongside her curated selection from the Ingram Collection. Kaur is a British artist whose sculptural practice playfully examines the tensions between familiarity and uncertainty, protection and vulnerability. Often working with materials such as metal and textiles, she transforms everyday objects into evocative, dreamlike forms that invite deeper reflection. Her work explores the fluid and intersecting nature of identity, questioning how personal and cultural influences shape our sense of self. Through these carefully constructed spaces, Kaur creates a world rich in narrative possibility. More info: Lightbox

Sculpture in the Park, 19 Mar 2024 – May 2027. Compton Verney, Warwickshire.
A major new sculpture park will open in the grounds, with works by eight contemporary artists drawn from around the world. The sculpture park will include works from leading UK-based artists such as Sarah Lucas (b.1962), Permindar Kaur (b.1965), British-Ghanian artist Larry Achiampong (b.1984), London-based French artist Nicolas Deshayes (b.1983), Lithuanian artist Augustas Serapinas (b.1990), French-American artist Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), British artist Helen Chadwick (1953-1996) and a new commission by Brazilian artist Erika Verzutti (b.1971).
More info: Compton Verney

Recent Past

Permindar Kaur’s Chilling Yet Child-Friendly World, by Mark Rappolt. ArtReview vol 76 no 7, October 2024, pg 102. The artist conjures cartoonish monsters under the bed in an exhibition that feels less nightmarish than disarmingly cuddly.
ArtReview

Empire Lines podcast with , Sept 26 2024
Artist and sculptor Permindar Kaur moves between the Black British Arts Movement, the Young British Artists (YBAs), and Barcelona in the 1990s, exploring the ambiguities of Indian and South Asian cultural identities.
Listen here: Empire Lines

Not Only, But Also: Permindar Kaur’s Ambiguous Sculptures at John Hansard Gallery – by Jelena Sofronijevic. August 22, 2024 published on GowithYamo. We travel to Southampton for the artist’s latest exhibition of anthropomorphism-meets-furniture…
Jelena Sofronijevic

Teddy bears and more – ‘Nothing is Fixed’ by Permindar Kaur at John Hansard Gallery – by Urvi Kothari. Aug 10, 2024 published on Stir World. Using everyday objects as a tool for introspection, the visual artist’s solo show explores fundamental issues such as home, migration, identity and safety. Read here: Stir World

Nothing is Fixed, Art Monthly no. 478, July – August 2024 – by Amna Malik. A fur-covered frame faces me, a metal claw protrudes from within, a sign nearby instructs the viewer ‘Please do not touch’, which, oddly, is just what this work entices us to do.
Read here: Amna Malik, Nothing is Fixed

Permindar Kaur: Artlyst Interview of the Month June 2024 – Paul Carey-Kent
Permindar Kaur’s thirty-year career survey at the John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, is titled ‘Nothing is Fixed’. As that suggests, her work maintains ambiguity between possible interpratations, leaving the viewer to decide. Kaur divides the show into five distinct spaces: what you might call ‘the wall of hiding’, ‘the room of rooms’, ‘the bedroom’, ‘the hunting zome’ and ‘black teddy world’.
Read here: Artlyst

Nothing is Fixed, 8 June–7 September 2024, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton
Permindar Kaur is a sculptor and installation artist who utilises familiar forms, such as furniture and toys, to create displaced domestic belongings and settings that invoke the uncanny. Transforming John Hansard Gallery into an immersive set of installations, Nothing is Fixed explores fundamental issues of home, belonging, care and safety. Kaur focuses on the intersectionality of identity; how society, family and education inform unique combinations of discrimination and privilege.
Nothing Is Fixed JHG

Opinion – Art, Museums Journal, 22 July 2024. Mela is expanding the definition of what Asian art can be. Sculptor Permindar Kaur on how South Asian festivals are encouraging artists to reclaim their heritage.
Read here: Museums Journal