Born 1968, London, UK
1987–90 BA (Hons) Degree Fine Art, 1st Class, Kent Institute of Art and Design, UK
1990–93 Post Graduate Diploma, Royal Academy of Art, London, UK
The Directors, Artangel, London, UK
The Animal That Therefore I Am, OCAT Institute, Beijing, China
Near-Life Experience, Kate MacGarry, London, UK
The Last of Its Kind, Workplace Gallery, London, UK
The Sounds of Others, Innsbruck Biennale, Austria
Functional Improvisation, Performance, Marcus Coates and Terry Day, William Morris Gallery, London, UK
Sound Reasoning, Performance, Miners Institute, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
Arrivals/Departures – Nature Calendar, sculpture commission for Utrecht Centraal Train Station, Netherlands
Arrivals/Departures 16 performances across 12 months: grass snake ritual, salmon ritual, dawn chorus performance, bat choir performance, starling murmuration, migration parade, bird migration conference, fungi fairy-ring ritual, purple emperor butterfly ritual, fox choir performance, snowdrop ritual, woodcock dating ritual, woodpecker drumming performance, glow worm ritual, moth ball, deaths head hawk moth ritual. Utrecht, Netherlands
Questioning the Dead, Performance, Arnos Vale Cemetery, Bristol, UK
Marcus Coates, You Might As Well Ask A Crow, Workplace Gallery, London, UK
Marcus Coates, Kate MacGarry, London, UK
Marcus Coates, Workplace Gallery, Gateshead, UK
Dawn Chorus, Fabrica, Brighton, UK
The Sounds of Others: A Biophonic Line, Lovelock Commission with Cape Farewell, Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester, UK
Unblocking Services, Performance, The Nuisance of Landscape: Grizedale – The Sequel, Abbotthall, Kendal, UK
185x49x29cm, Workplace Gallery, Gateshead, UK
Proxy, Kate MacGarry, London, UK
Marcus Coates, Workplace Gallery, Gateshead, UK
Dawn Chorus, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales, UK
Follow The Voice, Canary Wharf, Screen, London, UK
Vision Quest: a ritual for Elephant & Castle, Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre, London, UK
Stories from the Lower World, South Alberta Art Gallery, Canada
Marcus Coates, eva International Biennial of Visual Art, Limerick City, Ireland
The Trip, Serpentine Gallery – Artists Studio, London, UK
Questions & Answers, Kate MacGarry, London, UK
Dawn Chorus, ESPAI 13/Fundació Joan Miró. Barcelona, Spain
Psychopomp, Milton Keynes Gallery, UK
Marcus Coates, Performances, Kunsthalle Zurich, Parallel Space, Switzerland
Marcus Coates, Performance, Mori Art Museum, Academy Hills, Tokyo, Japan
A Ritual for Elephant & Castle (with Chrome Hoof), Performance, Coronet Theatre, London, UK
Marcus Coates, Kunsthalle Zurich, Parallel Space, Switzerland
Marcus Coates, Tomio Koyama Gallery,Tokyo, Japan
The Plover’s Wing, Workplace Gallery, Gateshead, UK
Marcus Coates, NOMA, New Orleans Museum of Art, USA
Marcus Coates, Newlyn Art Gallery, UK
Follow the Voice, Unitarian Church, Shrewsbury, UK
Marcus Coates, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
Dawn Chorus, Venice Biennale, Italy
Dawn Chorus, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK
Dawn Chorus, Picture This, Bristol, UK
Cycle Parking and Prostitution, Rekord Gallery, Oslo, Norway
Journey to the Lower World, Café Gallery Projects, London, UK
Unbecoming, The Gymnasium, Berwick upon Tweed, UK
2013, Trafalgar Square, London 4th Plinth, shortlist
2013, Winner of the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Create Art Award
2013 Jarman Award, shortlist
2009, Winner, Diawa Foundation Art Prize
2008, Paul Hamlyn Visual Artist Award
1993, New Contemporaries Prize, Winner
2018, Degreecoordinates, Shared traits of the Hominini, by Marcus Coates and Volker Sommer
500 pages
Designed by Modern Activity
Published by Turner Contemporary, UK
2016, Marcus Coates, works from 1994–2014
Author(s), Marcus Coates, Beatrix Ruf, Valerie Smith, Anthony Spira, Shepherd Steiner
Co-Published by Kunsthalle Zurich, Milton Keynes Gallery and Koenig
Designed by Fraser Muggeridge Studio
ISBN 9783863359355
2014, 2020, A Practical Guide to Unconscious Reasoning
Co-Published by Bookworks and Create
Designed by Modern Activity
ISBN: 978 1 90601 261 8
2011, The Trip
Published by Serpentine Gallery/Koenig Books
ISBN 978-3-86560-985-4
2007, Marcus Coates – In Profile
DVD, Published by Picture This, essay by Max Andrews
ISBN 978-0-9539872-9-0
2005, Journey to the Lower World
Published by Platform Projects, Essays by Mark Wallinger, Alec Finlay and JJ Charlesworth
ISBN 0 9546831 6 1
2002, Marcus Coates
Published by Grizedale Books, Designed by Tomato, Essay by Tracey Warr
ISBN 0 95254550 6 3
2017, Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Canada
2016–17, Psychosis Unit, South Maudsley Hospital, London, UK
2012, The Gushul Studio, Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Canada
2010, St. John’s Hospice, London in association with Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
2009, Tokyo Wonder Site, Tokyo, Japan
2008, Calouste Gulbenkian Trust and Galapagos Conservatiion Trust Artist Residency, Galapagos, Ecuador
2006, Seven Samurai, Grizedale in Toge and Tokyo, Japan
2006, Liverpool Biennial, Stavanger, Norway
2003, Further up in the Air, Liverpool, UK
2002, Berwick Gymnasium, Berwick upon Tweed, UK
2002, Wysing Arts, Cambridgeshire, UK
2001, Allenheads Centre for Contemporary Art, Allenheads, Northumberland, UK
1999, Grizedale Forest, Cumbria, UK
1993, Orchard Gallery, Derry, N. Ireland, UK
Nature Calendar, Les Extatiques, La Défense, Paris
TWENTY, Kate MacGarry at No. 9 Cork Street, London, UK
Notes on Protesting, Kate MacGarry, London, UK
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
The Art-Nature Laboratory or The Mushrooming Cabinet of Wonders, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
Kaleidoscope, Workplace Gallery, London, UK
The World is in You, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen
Aux Frontières de L’Humain, Musée de l’Homme, Paris, France
Planet Love.Climate Care in the Digital Age, Vienna Biennale for Change, Austria
Joseph Beuys and the Shamans, Museum Schloss Moyland, Germany
EKO 8, International Triennial of Art and Environment / A Letter to the Future, UGM Maribor Art Gallery, Slovenia
Our Time, Estuary Festival 2021: Gravesend, Dartford, Herne Bay, Margate, Rochester and Faversham, Kent, UK
Hippo Campus: Where we Learn, Newlyn Art Gallery, Newlyn, UK
Transmission, Workplace gallery, Gateshead
The Extended Mind, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
Animalesque, BALTIC centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK
24:7: A Wake-up call for our non-stop world, Somerset House, London, UK
Out of Place, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle
Creatures Made to Measure, Design Museum, Ghent
Wildnis, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Germany
Good Grief Charlie Brown, Somerset House, London
The Land We Live In, The Land We Left Behind, Hauser & Wirth, Somerset, UK
And Breathe..., Manchester City Art Gallery, UK
Animals and Us, Turner Contemporary Gallery, Margate, UK
Creatures Made to Measure – Animals and Contemporary Design, Marta Herford, Germany
Ask the Birds, Whitechapel Gallery, London
Ask the Apes, Turner Contemporary Gallery, Margate, UK
Ask the Ash, Whitstable Biennale, UK
Ask the Sea, Tate Gallery St. Ives, UK
Ask the Wood, South London Botanical Institute, UK
We are not Alone, British Council Collection, Athr Gallery, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
As Above, So Below: Portals, Visions, Spirits & Mystics, IMMA Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Animal Mirror, International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York
Modern Visionaries, Laing Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
I Want I Want, Arts Council Collection, Birmingham City Gallery and Museum, UK
A Fair Land, Grizedale Arts at IMMA Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
This is a Voice, Wellcome Collection, London, UK
Making Nature, Wellcome Collection, London, UK
Station to Station, Curated by Doug Aitken, Barbican, London, UK
Ape Culture, HKW, Berlin
Angels and Doppelgaengers, OK Center for Contemporary Art, Linz, Austria
Diamonds always come in small packages, Kunstmuseum Lucerne, Switzerland
Beastly / Tierisch, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland
Höhenrausch 2015 – The Secret of the Birds, OK Offenes Kulturhaus OÖ, Linz, Austria
Terrapolis, École Française d’Athènes, Athens
Ghost Nature, College of Architecture and the Arts, University , Chicago, USA
Straight to Camera: Performance for Film, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK
Arche Noah – Über Tier und Mensch in der Kunst, Museum Ostwall im Dortmunder U, Dortmund, Germany
The Nuisance of Landscape: Grizedale – The Sequel, Abbotthall, Kendal, UK
Private Utopia: Contemporary Art from the British Council Collection, Tokyo Station Gallery, Kochi - The Museum of Art, Itami City Museum of Art, Japan
4th Plinth, Trafalgar Sq, Shortlist Exhibition, St. Martins-in-the-Fields, London, UK
Vocal Folds, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia
Super 8, MAM, Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Dawn Chorus, Todawa Art Festival, Japan
Galápagos, Centro de Arte Moderna, Lisbon, Portugal
Between the Late and Early, Royal Scottish Academy RSA, Edinburgh, UK
Three Years at Sea, Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Anchorhold – Meetings with Marcus Coates, Performance, Hai arts and Grizedale Arts, Island of Hailuoto, Finland
School of Imagination, film screening, Barbican, London, UK
Uncanny Journey, Archiv trifft Gegenwart – Dienstgebäude, Zurich, Switzerland
The Gathering, Yukiko Kawase Gallery, Paris, France
SUPER 8, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
Jarman Award shortlist, Whitechapel, London, UK
Now I Gotta Reason, Grizedale Arts at Jerwood Space, London, UK
Galapagos, Bluecoat, Liverpool. Fruitmarket, Edinbugh, Centro de Arte Moderna, Lisbon, Portugal
Hors Piste, Pompidou, Paris, France
Out of Sight, Out of Mind, Workplace Gallery, Gateshead, UK
3rd Athens Biennale 2011, MONODROME, Greece
Super 8, Christopher Grimes Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
The Edge of Reason, KINOKINO Centre for Art and Film, Sandnes, Norway
Synthetic Ritual, Pitzer Art Galleries, Claremont, USA
29th Biennial of Graphic Arts – Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Siobhan Davies Commissions, Bargehouse, London, UK
Double, Double, Workplace Gallery, Gateshead, UK
ROTATE, Contemporary Art Society & Shortlist Media, London, UK
Ffilm, Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea, UK
The Armory Show (with Workplace Gallery), New York, USA
Going where the weather suits my clothes… fall of light on fabric, Mother’s Tank Station, Dublin, Ireland
Self Portrait as Worcestershire, Movement Gallery, Worcester, UK
The Animal Gaze, Sheffield Institute of Arts gallery, Sheffield, UK
FFILM 3, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, UK
From Past to Present, Migration, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile
Transformation, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
Adaptation, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada
Europes, Contemporary Culture Festival, Barcelona, Spain
Steps into the Arcane, Kartause Ittingen, Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Switzerland
The Perfect Exhibition, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany
Artist's Body, Coreana Museum, Seoul, South Korea
Grand National – Art from Britain, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Norway
From Ritual to Theatre, Ancient & Modern, London, UK
Recent Acquisitions, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool Biennial, UK
Decalogue: Films You Can Count on Two Hands, Winkleman Gallery, New York, USA
17th Biennale of Sydney. THE BEAUTY OF DISTANCE: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age, Australia
Art Star 4 Video Art Biennial, Galerie SAW Gallery, Ottawa, Canada
Exposition of Mythology – Electric Technology, Nam June Paik Art Centre, Seoul, South Korea
Altermodern, Tate Triennial, Tate Britain, London, UK
Lisson Presents 2, Lisson Gallery, London, UK
Trying to Cope with Things that aren’t Human, David Cunningham Projects, San Francisco, USA
Living Together, Montehermoso, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain and MARCO, Spain
Ventriloquist, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, UK
Daiwa Foundation Art Prize, Japan House, London, UK
A Duck for Mr Darwin, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK
Tier-Werden, Mensch-Werden, NGBK Berlin, Germany
All Creatures Great And Small, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland
Human Report, TV Broadcast, Channel 9 TV, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
Drawing Biennal, The Drawing Room, London, UK
Manifesta7, Trento, Italy
VideoZone, Israeli Video Art Biennial, CCA, Tel Aviv, Israel
This Wild Melody, Performance, Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK
Spirit Caravan, Performance, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
Laughing in a Foreign Language, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
Hamsterwheel, Malmo Konsthall, Malmo, Sweden
Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art, Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK
Harry Smith Anthology Remixed, CCA, Glasgow, UK
Experimental Marathon, Reykjavik Art Museum, Iceland
Micro-narratives: tentation des petites réalités, Musée d'Art moderne de Saint-Etienne, France
Trust in Me, Charles H.Scott Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Goggle på jorden, Galleri Charlotte Lund, Stockholm, Sweden
The Brotherhood of Subterranea, Kunstbunker, Nuremberg, Germany
Grounded (Now Hear This), AV Festival, Middlesbrough, UK
All my favourite singers couldn’t sing, Workplace Gallery, Gateshead, UK
A Lower World, Pleasure Dome, Toronto, Canada
Pastoral Spirit, Performance, Wallspace, All Hallows Church, London, UK
Tomorrow the Future, (curated by Workplace) Fishmarket Gallery, Northampton, UK
A Heligoland for Souls – Experiment Marathon, Performance, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
HaPazura, Israeli Centre for Digital Art, Holon, Israel
Dawn Chorus, Performance, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK
100 Ways to Change the World, Performance, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
Pub Shaman, Performance, The Event, The Lamp Tavern, Birmingham, UK
Solo Screening, Artesmundi, Cardiff, UK
Persona Non Grata, One in the Other, London, UK
Micro-Narratives, 48th October Salon, Belgrade, Serbia
Hamsterwheel, Arsenale – Biennale di Venezia 2007, Venice, Italy
Dark Mirror, Netherlands Inatitute for Media Arts – Montevideo, Amsterdam, Netherlands
False Witness, Workplace Gallery, Gateshead, UK
Extend your Neck, Café Gallery Projects, London, UK
Metteurs en Scène, Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh, UK
Return of the Seven Samurai, Lucy Mackintosh Gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland
Nature Revisited, Tou Scene, Stavanger, Norway
Waterlog, Norwich Castle Museum, Norwich & The Collection, Lincoln, UK
Kamikuchi, Performance, Grizedale Arts, Ikebukuru Tokyo, Japan
Grizedale Arts, Performance, Super Deluxe, Tokyo, Japan
The Mouth of God, Performance, Grizedale Arts, A-Foundation, Liverpool Biennial 06, UK
In Conversation with Mark Wallinger, ICA, London, UK
Emotional Man, CACT Centro d'Arte Contemporanea Ticino, Switzerland
The Nature of Misunderstanding, CACT Centro d'Arte Contemporanea Ticino, Switzerland
AWOL, Bucharest Biennial, Romania
Seven Samurai, Toge, Japan
Sinking Toward Wishy Mountain, The Royal Standard, Liverpool Biennial 06, UK
Radio Shaman, Rogaland Kunstsenter, Stavanger, Norway
Action, FRAC-Provence-Alpes-Cote-D’Azur, Marseille, France
Where the Wild Things Are, DCA, Dundee, UK
The Scarecrow, The Evangelos Averoff-Tositsas Foundation, Metsovo, Greece
Marcus Coates, Market Gallery, Glasgow International, UK
Forsbacka Bruk Art Project, Forsbacka, Sweden
God is a Gallery, Gallery Galuzin, Oslo, Norway
British Art Show 6, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art & Touring, UK
Solo Screening, Marcus Coates' Films 99-2005, Side Cinema, Newcastle, UK
Hilchot Shechenim, Israeli Centre for Digital Art, Holon, Israel
Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 05, Berwick upon Tweed, UK
Clerkenwell Film Festival, Various Venues, London, UK
Human Nature, Pump House Gallery, Battersea, London, UK
Faltering Flame, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, UK
Shrinking Cities, Kunstwerke Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Disguise, Manchester City Art Gallery, UK
The Bigger Picture, BBC Outdoor Public Screen, Manchester City Centre, UK
Simulation Summit, Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada
Only a Game, Impressions Gallery, York, UK
Panic Picturesque, CCA, Glasgow, UK
The Human Zoo, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle University, UK
Mother Nature, Vilma Gold, London, UK
Further Up In the Air, Shiel Park Housing Block, Liverpool, UK
Commotion, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, UK
The Space Between Us, Vane, Newcastle, UK
Flock, Spacex, Exeter, UK
Out of Season, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
“Here...” (Videorom), Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Bergamo, Italy
Videorom, MACRO, Museo Arte Contemporenea, Rome, Gian Carlo Zanutti Gallery, Milan, Italy
Flock, Wysing Arts, Cambs, UK
Local Birds, Allenheads Contemporary Arts, Northumberland, UK
Videorom, Valencia Biennial, Spain
Dawn Chorus, Channel 4, UK
OX1, Oscillations and Vibrations, Performance and Sound Festival, Oxford, UK
A Public Auction of Private Works, Kimbolton Castle, Cambs, UK
Chiffchaff, Performance, Compton Verney, The Bandstand, Leamington Spa and Herbert Gallery and Museum, Coventry, UK
GB3CV, Compton Verney, Warks, UK
The Oriel Mostyn Open, Llandudno, UK
The Grizedale Show, Grizedale Arts, Cumbria, UK
Evidence of Existence, Kunstraum Siegert, Basel
Good Crop Bad Crop, Grizedale Arts, Cumbria, UK
New Contemporaries, Cornerhouse Gallery, Manchester, UK