Marcus Coates lives and works in London.

Marcus Coates creates new ways of relating where a need or cultural barrier might exist. He often works with others to create processes founded on empathy and trust, collaborating with members of the public, organisations and institutions, as well as experts from a wide range of disciplines. His work is rooted in critique, but more importantly for him he creates pragmatic solutions, to affect constrained perspectives. His knowledge of natural history and his attempts to re-imagine and inhabit the perspectives of other species have been a constant focus. The empathetic techniques he has developed have led him to work on behalf of people, including most recently for individuals with lived experience of psychosis and for individuals in palliative care.

His recent exhibitions include: The Directors, Artangel, London, UK (2022); The Limits of Humanity, Musée de l’Homme, Paris, 2021; The World is in You, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, 2021; Joseph Beuys and the Shamans, Museum Schloss Moyland, Bedburg-Hau, Germany 2021; The Animal that therefore I am, OCAT Institute, Beijing, China, 2020; The Land We Live In, The Land We Left Behind, Hauser & Wirth Somerset 2018; Functional Improvisation with percussionist Terry Day, William Morris Museum, 2017; As Above, So Below, IMMA, Dublin, 2017; Ape Culture, HKW Berlin, 2015; Dawn Chorus, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain (2015); The Trip, Serpentine Gallery, London and Implicit Sound, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, 2011; Psychopomp, Milton Keynes Gallery, 2010; Marcus Coates, Kunsthalle, Zurich, Switzerland, 2009.

Coates was nominated for the 4th Plinth Commission in 2014 and was the recipient of a Paul Hamyln Award in 2008. In 2014 he was the first recipient of the James Lovelock Commission and in 2009 he won the inaugural Daiwa Art Prize.

Recent publications include:

Marcus Coates, 2016, a survey monograph published by Koenig, designed by Fraser Muggeridge

UR…A Practical Guide to Unconscious Reasoning, 2014 (Second edition 2020), Published by Bookworks, designed by Modern Activity