Rosie Gibbens (b.1993, London) makes performances, videos, sculptures and photographs that feature her body. Using absurd humour, she explores the slippery overlaps between identity, labour and consumer desire. She often makes sculptures that combine household gadgets with sewn body parts. These are brought to life through low-tech chain reactions in the performances/ films. Rosie playfully blends bodies with objects to unpack and question the prospective future body as it becomes increasingly ‘optimised’ by technological augmentation. The mindset behind her work is of a nonsensical product demonstration combined with a perverse children's TV show.
Education:
Ba Performance Design and Practice, Central Saint Martins, 2015
Ma Contemporary Art Practice: Performance, 2018
Solo exhibitions:
Muta | Pippy Houldsworth Gallery | London | 2025
Parabiosis | Arken Museum of Contemporary Art | Copenhagen 2024
Parabiosis | The Bomb Factory | London | 2024
The New Me | Shoreditch Arts Club with Daata | London | 2023
Skin of my Teeth | Midlands Arts Centre | Fierce Festival | Birminghman | 2022
Soft Girls | Zabludowicz Collection | London | 2021
Hen Night | Salon Acme | Mexico City | 2020
Underage Red | Black Box | Farnham | 2020
Carrot and Stick | Somers Gallery | London | 2019
Selected group exhibitions:
2025
Lead artist for Visions at the Nunnery | Bow Arts | London
Unimate (workshop) | Middlesbrough Arts Week | Middlesbrough
TOYS! TOYS! TOYS! | Spielzeug | New York
The London Open | Whitechapel Gallery | London
Workout | Ohsh Projects | London
The artist is naked | Kunstpalais | Erlangen Germany
Sorry about the mess | Babestation | London
2024
Art Fictions Anthology | The Handbag Factory ASC | London
Absurd Visions | Bow Arts Shaftesbury Avenue Takeover | London
Material Thinking | The Lightbox | Woking | UK
Taste | Wonzimer | LA | USA
Liquify | Ohsh projects | London
2023
The Amber Room | Matt’s Gallery | London
Are you working now | National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts | Taiwan
Eye Body | TJ Boulting | London
Body Poetics | curated by Marcelle Joseph and Becca Pelly Fry | Giant | Bournemouth | UK
After the performance | curated by Paul Carey Kent | Tension | London
Tangle Teaser | Sarabande Foundation | London
Saucisson | Shtager & Shch | London
Peckham 24 photo festival | London
2022
The Ingram Prize | Unit 1 Gallery Workshop | London
Girl meets Girl | Curated by Paul Carey Kent | Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium | Norway
The New Me | Expo fair with Daata | Chicago
Touch me baby | Bad Art | The Bomb Factory | London
Sunny Prestatyn | ArcadeCampfa | Cardiff
2021
The Artist Is Online | König Galerie | Berlin
Ex-is | National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art | Seoul | South Korea
Balls | OOF Gallery | London
Pigeon Park | Manor Place | London (25 Sept - 3 Oct)
The Factory | Thorpe Stavri | London (9 Oct - 22 Oct)
Recreational Grounds | Thames-side Studios | London
Hot Air | Bad Art presents | London
2020
Ridiculous | Elephant West | London
Moving Pictures | Latrobe Regional Gallery | Australia
Antisocial Isolation | Saatchi Gallery | London
She Chews Art II | Croydon Arts Store | London
Visions at the Nunnery | Bow Arts | London
2019
Through the Backdoor | Bloomberg New Contemporaries | South London Gallery | London
Temporary Realities | Somers Gallery | London
Absinthe no.3 | Collective Ending | Spit and Sawdust | London
Recreational Grounds V | DATEAGLE ART | London
YIKES (A Celebration of Awkward Performance) | Lovelite | Berlin | Germany
2018
Learn Where the Meat Comes From | out_sight | Seoul | South Korea
TBCTV | Somerset House | London
REVOLVE Performance Festival | The Orangerie, Orbyhus Castle | Uppsala, Sweden London
Residencies and Awards:
2025
Zsuzsi Roboz Scholarship at Morley College
Xenia Creative Retreat residency
2024
Hogchester Arts residency
Good Eye Projects residency
2023
Shortlisted for the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award
2022
Winner of the Ingram Prize, ‘Founders Choice’ award
Sarabande Residency Funded by the Alexander McQueen Foundation