Lindsey Mendick
Lindsey Mendick (born 1987) is a British artist who works primarily in ceramics, often within large-scale installations. Her practice reinterprets the associations of clay with domesticity and decoration, drawing on autobiography, popular culture, and explorations of gender.[1]
She received an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art in 2017, after completing a BA at Sheffield Hallam University.[2] Her exhibitions have been staged at venues including Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the Hayward Gallery, and she won the Sky Arts Award for Visual Art in 2024.[3][4]
Works by Mendick are held in the Arts Council Collection (UK)[5] and the UK Government Art Collection.[6]
Mendick co-founded Quench, a not-for-profit project space in Margate established to present exhibitions and support early-career artists. Quench is now run by Mendick, Gemma Pharo and Guy Oliver.[7][8]
Selected work and exhibitions
Her installation Till Death Do Us Part (2022) was commissioned for the Hayward Gallery exhibition Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art. The work featured wedding-themed ceramic tableaux, combining humour and grotesque imagery to explore intimacy and domesticity.[9][10]
Her solo exhibition Where the Bodies Are Buried opened at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2023. The show transformed the galleries into a domestic interior haunted by references to soap operas and popular culture, with large-scale ceramic figures and furnishings.[11][12]
In 2022 she presented Off With Her Head at Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate, an immersive installation that combined ceramics, video projections and theatrical sets to stage a surreal narrative around women's roles throughout history.[13]
Her exhibition Hot Mess at the Sainsbury Centre (2024) filled the galleries with autobiographical ceramic sculptures referencing nightlife, chaos and vulnerability.[14]
In 2025 Mendick created Wicked Game for Kenilworth Castle, a site-specific installation engaging with Elizabeth I's court, staging her ceramic figures within the historic interiors.[15]
References
- ^ Judah, Hettie (11 August 2022). "'I burned all my relationships in the kiln': Lindsey Mendick's courageous, confessional ceramics". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
- ^ "Lindsey Mendick". Carl Freedman Gallery. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
- ^ "Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art (installation views)". Southbank Centre. Hayward Gallery. 26 October 2022. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
- ^ "Winners revealed at the Sky Arts Awards". Sky Group. 19 September 2024. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
- ^ "Lindsey Mendick – Arts Council Collection". Arts Council Collection. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
- ^ "Acquisitions round-up: 90 new works by 45 artists purchased for the UK Government Art Collection". The Art Newspaper. 13 July 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
- ^ "About — Quench". Quench. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
- ^ "Dames Tracey Emin and Sonia Boyce contribute works to save cash-strapped Quench". The Art Newspaper. 23 July 2024. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
- ^ "Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art". Ceramics Now. 31 October 2022. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
- ^ "Pottery goes off-piste in the Hayward Gallery's Strange Clay". RIBA Journal. 11 November 2022. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
- ^ Cumming, Laura (16 April 2023). "Lindsey Mendick: Where the Bodies Are Buried; Leonardo Drew – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
- ^ Jones, Jonathan (7 April 2023). "Lindsey Mendick review – Brookside's buried body is a ceramic letdown". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
- ^ "Lindsey Mendick: Off With Her Head". New Exhibitions. July–August 2022. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
- ^ "Lindsey Mendick: Hot Mess". Sainsbury Centre. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
- ^ "Lindsey Mendick: Wicked Game — battle of the sexes in a Tudor castle". The Times. 10 July 2025. Retrieved 23 August 2025.