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. Child-like figures equipped with claws, horns, or beaks haunt the gallery like sentinels or misfits, suggesting protection, defiance or both. Drawing on cultural symbolism, including ceremonial Sikh colours such as saffron and navy, her works use techniques of camouflage whilst simultaneously asserting their presence. Throughout, motifs suggesting a high society country house — such as pairs of antlers — are set against materials such as felt or fleece, which suggest both the safety of a childhood comfort blanket or toy as well as the realities of everyday life.
More info: Pitzhanger Gallery

Permindar Kaur in conversation with Katherine Wood, 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

Nothing is Fixed Catalogue published by John Hansard Gallery to accompany Permindar Kaur’s exhibition. Texts by Ros Carter, Permindar Kaur, Dorothy Price, Katharine Stout and Nadia Thondrayen. Softcover, 80pp, 24 x 17 cm. Illustrated in colour. ISBN: 9781912431335.
Publication supported by Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai, India
University of Southampton

Selector for the 2024 New Contemporaries Open Call with Amalia Pica & Liz Johnson Artur.
New Contemporaries welcome submissions from emerging and early career artists who are final year students, recent graduates and post-graduate students from UK art schools and alternative learning programmes.
See selected works here: New Contemporaries 2024

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

Art Monthly Talk Show on Resonance FM – An audio supplement to Art Monthly magazine. Vaishna Surjid discusses Soumya Sankar Bose’s exhibition ‘Braiding Dusk and Dawn’ at Deflina Foundation, London; Amna Malik reviews Permindar Kaur’s exhibition ‘Nothing is Fixed’ at John Hansard Gallery, Southampton; and Henry Broome reports on public art and its place in homelessness and sanitation. Presented by Chris McCormack.
Listen here: Resonance FM: Art Monthly July

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

Artist Talk & Book Launch, Sat 7th Sept, 1.30 – 3.30 pm, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton
Join Permindar Kaur and Katharine Stout in conversation as we mark the publication of Nothing is Fixed, a detailed exploration into Kaur’s current solo exhibition at John Hansard Gallery.
More info here: JHG

A Spirit Inside 21 Mar – 1 Sept 2024, Compton Verney, Warwickshire.
Drawn from two of the UK’s leading art collections, The Women’s Art Collection and The Ingram Collection, A Spirit Inside will bring together a selection of works spanning over 100 years. Exploring how women and non-binary artists have grappled with the notion and sense of ‘spirit’, the themes range from mythology and internal contemplation to external, often political, expression. A Spirit Inside will feature a range of artists, from historic greats to important contemporaries, such as Leonora Carrington, Winifred Nicholson, Bridget Riley, Miriam Schapiro, Man Fung Yi, and Permindar Kaur, amongst many others.
Compton Verney
Review –Studio International

RA Summer Exhibition 2024, 18 Jun – 18 Aug 2024 Royal Academy, London.
Works by invited artists this year will include Ackroyd & Harvey, Vivien Blackett, Diana Copperwhite, Andrew Pierre Hart, Permindar Kaur, Radhika Khimji, Kathy Prendergast, Rachel Whiteread and Charmaine Watkiss. In addition to the large number of public submissions, Royal Academicians and Honorary Academicians will be showing works, including Ron Arad, Frank Bowling, Michael Craig-Martin, Anselm Kiefer, Conrad Shawcross, Clare Woods and Rose Wylie.
Royal Academy

After Hours, Fri 9 August 2024, 6 – 9 pm at Compton Verney, Warwickshire. Chloe Wing and Permindar Kaur in conversation. Hosted by Jo Baring, Director of the Ingram Collection of Modern British & Contemporary Art, and Harriet Loffler, Curator of The Women’s Art Collection at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. You’ll learn more about Chloe Wing’s intricate masterpiece Paper Cage as well as Permindar Kaur’s powerful works Turbans and Overgrown House. More info here: Compton Verney 

Mela Monument Sat 13 July, 11 – 10 pm, Hoglands Park, Southampton.
Mela Monument is a series of new outdoor artworks that have been created by artists Permindar Kaur (lead artist), Ren Fang Wooldridge and Rabia Raja, inspired by the Southampton Mela Festival. For Kaur, Mela is about gathering, celebration and making oneself at home. This led her to the idea of making a work with beds and washing lines to say, “this is now our home, where we sleep, and even put out our washing.” On the day of the Southampton Mela Festival, the audience will be able to participate in the making of the work. Using Indian wooden blocks, they can design and print patterns of their choice on the clothes, which will then be hung up, added to the sculpture in the Mela Sculpture Park.
More info here: Mela Monument, 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

Sculpture in the Park Curator’s Tour  Sat 6 July 2024, Compton Verney, Warwickshire with art critic, writer and curator Hettie Judah, artist Permindar Kaur and Compton Verney’s Director of Creative Programmes and Engagement Abigail Viner. A Sculpture Tour of the grounds where you’ll explore our Sculpture in the Park with a focus on the work Overgrown House, exploring notions of house and home. A guided tour of the current exhibition A Spirit Inside.  This exhibition is drawn from two of the UK’s leading art collections and features Permindar Kaur’s Turbans among many other inspiring pieces. Followed by a Q&A with Permindar and Hettie.
More info: Compton Verney

Indian Artists in Britain Symposium, Tue 26th March 2024, 9.30 -3.30 pm Broadway Gallery, Letchworth.
To coincide with the Broadway Gallery current exhibition ‘Amal Ghosh: Bridge’ we are hosting a symposium that brings together experts in Art Historians, Researchers and Practising Artists to facilitate an discussions to chart the history and representation of Indian Artists in the British arts.Broadway Gallery

Bitch Magic, 26 Jan – 2 March 2024, Alma Pearl Gallery, London.
Bitch Magic brings together a cross-generational group of women and non-binary artists who align with ‘the feminine’ and whose work offers radical feminist perspectives through themes associated with folklore, the magical or the esoteric. With Renate Bertlmann, Cullinan Richards, Ayla Dymterko, Permindar Kaur, Rebecca Parkin, Tai Shani, Penny Slinger, Georgina Starr & Unyimeabasi Udoh.
Alma Pearl Gallery

Fine Art Talks, British School at Rome online talk. The BSR is pleased to present the second event of the FA Talks series. On 28 February 2024 at 6pm, artist Permindar Kaur will give a talk about her practice. Watch here: British School at Rome – youtube

Artist Spotlight in Cultural Comms, Jan 16 2024. Interview about the work Independence (1998) at Saatchi Gallery until Jan 22nd.

If Not Now, When? Generations of Women in Sculpture in Britain, 1960 – 2022,  15 Nov – 22 Jan 2024, Saatchi Gallery, London. As part of our Season of Sculpture, our co-headline Winter exhibition, If Not Now, When? will feature 29 remarkable female sculptors, celebrating their contributions to the world of art from the 1960s to now. The exhibition will feature pieces by renowned artists including Permindar Kaur, Katrina Cowling, Phyllida Barlow, Helen and Cornelia Parker. The exhibition is co-curated by Dr Anna Douglas and Dr Kerry Harker.
Saatchi Gallery

Outgrown publication – Limited edition, signed, softback on removable screen-printed greyboard.
40 pages, published 2022 by The Art House. ISBN: 1-908432-19-5
Texts by Natalie Rudd, writer, independent curator, and researcher, and Damon Jackson-Waldock, Programme Director, The Art House. Buy here: Arthouse shop