Polly Morgan (taxidermist)

Polly Morgan was born in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England in 1980,[5] and grew up in the Cotswolds on her family farm, and mentions a lack of squeamishness about death as well as being comfortable with the practice of dealing with the corpses of animals.[6] She moved to East London in 1998 and continues to live there today.[5] Morgan graduated from Queen Mary, University of London, in English Literature in 2002.[4]

During her studies, Morgan worked at Shoreditch Electricity Show Rooms, a bar popular with artists; after graduation, she continued to work there as manager.[2] At 23 Morgan was living above the bar and working out of her apartment, "tinkering with taxidermy."[6] Inspired to create work of her own she took a course with the professional taxidermist George Jamieson, of Cramond, in Edinburgh, during which her intuitive and personal response to the medium were obvious.[4] Morgan's first pieces were commissioned by Bistrotheque, after which she was spotted by Banksy: A lovebird looking in a mirror; a squirrel holding a belljar with a little fly perched inside on top of a sugar cube; a magpie with a jewel in its beak; and a couple of chicks standing on a miniature coffin'.[7][2] In 2005, he invited her to show her work for Santa's Ghetto, an annual exhibition he organized near London's Oxford Street.[4] Her next piece, a white rat in a champagne glass, was exhibited at Wolfe Lenkiewicz's Zoo Art Fair in 2006 and was purchased by Vanessa Branson.[7][8][2] Morgan works from a Bethnal Green studio.[1]

Morgan is a member of the UK Guild of Taxidermists.[4] The animals used in her taxidermy are contributed by a network of clients; the animals Morgan uses have died naturally or had unpreventable deaths.[6] She maintains a detailed log of all dead animals in stock.[9]

Morgan believes that those who consider her work disrespectful or cruel to animals are "childish," and that anthropomorphizing the animals she uses is meaningless.[6] Her work emphasizes and displays animals in a way nontraditional to taxidermy, putting the animals in positions which do not generally imply that they are still alive, rather emphasizing the dying fall of the animal.[10]

As a result of a ruptured appendix when she was 31, Morgan became infertile and has spoken out to try to end the public stigma against talking out about in-vitro fertilization.

Notable exhibitions include:[11]

• Still Life After Death, 2006 at Kristy Stubbs Gallery
• The Exquisite Corpse, 2007 at Trinity Church, 1 Marylebone Road
• You Dig the Tunnel, I'll Hide the Soil, 2008 at White Cube
• Mythologies, 2009 at Haunch of Venison
• The Age of the Marvellous, 2009 at All Visual Arts[12]
• Psychopomps, 2010 at Haunch of Venison
• Contemporary Eye: Crossovers, 2010 at Pallant House Gallery
• Passion Fruits, 2011 at ME Collectors Room
• Burials, 2011 at Workshop Venice
• Dead Time, 2011 at Voide, Derry
• Endless Plains, 2012 at All Visual Arts[13]
• 10,000 Hours, 2012 at Kunstmuseum Thurgau[14]
• Foundation/Remains, 2013 at The Office Gallery, Nicosia, Cyprus
• The Nature of the Beast, 2013 at The New Art Gallery, Walsall
• Beasts of England, Beasts of Ireland, 2013 at VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art
• Curiouser and Curiouser, 2014 at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery
• Fates Refrain, 2014 at Robilant + Voena Gallery
• Organic Matters, 2015 at The National Museum of Women in Art[15]
• Dead Animals and the Curious Occurrence of Taxidermy in Contemporary Art, 2016 at David Winton Bell Gallery - Brown University[16]
• Animal Farm, Beastly Muses and Metaphors, 2016 at S|2 GALLERY[17]
• Daydreaming With Stanley Kubrick, 2016 at Somerset House
• 5 Years at Heddon Street, 2016 at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery
• Faith and Fathom, 2016 at Galleria Poggiali
• Naturalia, 2017 at Paul Kasmin Gallery

• What Do Artists Do All Day?

• Polly Morgan homepage
• Artnet
• BBC Radio Four interview