Education
Morgan graduated from Queen Mary, University of London, in English Literature in 2002.
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Polly Morgan
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Morgan did not plan an art career. She considered becoming an actress after leaving school, but went to university instead. During her studies, she worked in Shoreditch Electricity Showrooms, a bar popular with artists.
After graduation, she continued to work there as manager.
Inspired to create work of her own she took a course with the professional taxidermist George Jamieson, of Cramond, in Edinburgh, during which her intuitive and personal response to the medium were obvious. In 2005, he commissioned her to produce work for Santa"s Ghetto, an annual exhibition he organised near London"s Oxford Street.
Her next piece, a white rat curled up in a shallow champagne glass, was exhibited at Wolfe Lenkiewicz"s Zoo Art Fair in 2005. That piece – "Rest a Little on the Lap of Life" – was purchased before the show opened by Vanessa Branson.
Morgan works from a Bethnal Green studio.
In 2009, Morgan sold her flying machine sculpture from the All Visual Arts (AVA) The Age of the Marvellous exhibition for between £85,000 and £95,000 to Thomas Olbricht, a German art collector. The animals used in her taxidermy are contributed by vets or pet owners. The animals have died naturally or accidentally, for example they may have been roadkill.
Morgan maintains a detailed log of all dead animals in stock.
She is in many collections including the Zabludowicz collection and her magpie on a telephone is in the collection of Amanda Eliasch
Still Life After Death, 2006 at Kristy Stubbs Gallery
The Exquisite Corpse, 2007 at Trinity Church, 1 Marylebone Road
You Dig the Tunnel, I"ll Hide the Soil, 2008 at White Cube
Mythologies, 2009 at Haunch of Venison
The Age of the Marvellous, 2009 at All Visual Arts
Psychopomps, 2010 at Haunch of Venison
Contemporary Eye: Crossovers, 2010 at Pallant House Gallery
Passion Fruits, 2011 at Master of Engineering Collectors Room
Burials, 2011 at Workshop Venice
Dead Time, 2011 at Voide, Derry
Endless Plains, 2012 at All Visual Arts
10,000 Hours, 2012 at Kunstmuseum Thurgau
Foundation/Remains, 2013 at The Office Gallery, Nicosia, Cyprus
The Nature of the Beast, 2013 at The New Art Gallery, Walsall
Beasts of England, Beasts of Ireland, 2013 at VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Artist
Membership
Morgan is a member of the United Kingdom Guild of Taxidermists.
