Background
Camp was born in Buguma, Nigeria, a Kalabari town in the Niger Delta.
Camp was born in Buguma, Nigeria, a Kalabari town in the Niger Delta.
She studied art at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California (1979-1980), earned her Bachelor degree at the Central School of Art and Design (1980-1983), London, and her Master of Arts from the Royal College of Art (1983-1986).
She was honoured as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2005 Birthday Honours list. She was raised by her brother-in-law, the anthropologist Robin Horton. Her work is predominately sculpted in steel and characteristically takes inspiration from her Kalabari heritage, as well as drawing on other aspects of African culture.
She has worked with the Smithsonian and the British Museum.
Her work is in their permanent collections. Her sculptures are held in other museum collections in Europe, Britain and Japan and in private collections throughout the world.
She has exhibited internationally in galleries, including in Austria, Britain, Cuba, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Sicily, South Africa, Spain, the United States of America. Among her notable solo shows are Spirits in Steel — The Art of the Kalabari Masquerade at the American Museum of Natural History, New York (1998-1999). And Imagined Steel at The Lowry Arts Centre, Manchester, which toured to the Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno.
Brewery Art Centre, Cirencester.
And Derby Museum and Art Gallery (2002-2003). In 2005 she collaborated with Ground Force Ground Force to create work for the Africa Garden at the British Museum, as part of the United Kingdom-wide Africa 05 Festival. She has been awarded many commissions for public memorial sculptures, most notably the "Living Memorial" to Ken Saro-Wiwa.
In 2003 her proposal November-O-War Number-O-War-R was shortlisted for Trafalgar Square"s fourth plinth.
Her work features in the 2015 exhibition Number Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990 at the Guildhall Art Gallery. Camp is married to the architect Alan Camp and has lived in London for many years.
A 2006 photograph of Sokari Douglas Camp by Sal Idriss is part of the National Portrait Gallery collection. A 2009 terracotta was exhibited at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2013 as part of the Sculpture Series Heads - Contributors to British Sculpture.
1981 Amy Sadur Friedlander Prize 1982 Saatchi & Saatchi Award 1983 Princess of Wales Scholarship and Henry Moore Foundation bursary 2000 Commonwealth 2005 Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) 2006 Honorary Fellow of the University of the Arts London.
