Professor Lucy Orta

Biography

Professor Lucy Orta is an internationally recognised visual arts practitioner exploring the material agency of textiles.

Her research investigates the interrelations between the individual body and wider social and ecological environment, their diverse identities and means of cohabitation through interdisciplinary practice. Drawing, installation, wearable sculpture, photography, film and performance take form as Refuge Wear / Body Architecture, portable and autonomous habitats that reflect on issues of human mobility and survival; Nexus Architecture, clothing and accessories that shape modular and collective bodies through the metaphor of the social link; Lifeguard that investigates bodily vulnerability and resilience and Genuis Loci, wearables that embody myths, stories and histories of place.

Collaborating with marginalised and vulnerable communities Lucy employs participatory methods, storytelling, co-creation and reciprocal learning to empower participants through textile-led practice, these projects include EU-Roma, mapping hard-to-reach Roma tribes in Europe (EU Culture Programme 2007-2013); Traces: Stories of Migration with East London migrant communities (Arts Council of England 2022-2024); Lifeline with UK refugee and asylum seekers (AHRC 2022-2024); Banner Processions with female prisoners (Historic England 2017-2018).

Lucy co-founded with Jorge Orta Studio Orta (1992), a collaborative practice researching and developing long-term projects exploring broader social and ecological issues including,
· local and global food cycles through the ritual of community dining - 70 x 7 The Meal,
· water scarcity - OrtaWater (Green Leaf Award for artistic excellence with an environmental message, presented by the United Nations Environment Programme in partnership with Natural World Museum, Nobel Peace Center, Oslo 2007),
· climate change and displacement - Antarctica,
· species loss and interwoven ecosystems - Amazonia.

Lucy Orta's work has reached global audiences in esteemed museums and exhibitions including, Musée d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1994); Johannesburg Biennial (1997); Weiner Secession, Vienna; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (1999); USF Contemporary Art Museum, Florida for which she received the Visual Arts Award from the Andy Warhol Foundation (2001); Havana Biennale, Cuba (2004); Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa for the Venice Biennale (2005); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2006); Biennial of the End of the World, Ushuaia; the Antarctic Peninsula (2007); Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milan (2008); Natural History Museum, London (2010); Shanghai Biennale; MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome (2012); Terrace Wires, St Pancras International, London; The Johnson Museum, Cornell; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield (2013); Parc de la Villette, Paris; Nuit Blanche, Calgary (2014); London Museum Ontario, Canada (2015); Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester; City Gallery and Museum, Peterborough (2016); Frieze Projects, London (2017) Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Fountains Abbey Studley Royal, Ripon; European Cultural Capital Leeuwarden-Fryslân (2018); Palazzo Vecchio, Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, Museo Novecento, Florence (2019); Les Tanneries centre d'art contemporain, Amilly; Drawing Lab, Paris (2020); Diversity United, Berlin, Paris, Moscow (2021). Pompidou Metz, France (2022); Beaufort Triennale and Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale (2024); British Textile Biennial (2025); Bienal Burgos (2026).

Lucy Orta was appointed as Professor at University of the Arts London (UAL) London College of Fashion in 2002 and Chair of Art and the Environment in 2013, founding the Art for the Environment Residency Programme. She is a member of Centre for Sustainable Fashion, an Associate of TrAIN (Research Centre for Transnational Art Identity and Nation) and was a Research Affiliate at MIT's Art Culture Technology Lab until 2025. In acknowledgement of her academic contribution to the visual arts, Lucy has received an honorary Master of Arts from Nottingham Trent University and an honorary Doctor of Letters from University of Brighton.