ABOUT

Sophie Lloyd is a London based artist working with sugar and lead. She graduated in 2023 from City and Guilds of London Art School with a BA in Fine Art. Following her degree show installation, ‘The Live Show’ she was awarded the inaugural Anthony Caro Sculpture Prize. Lloyd was also awarded the New Blood Emerging Art Prize at the Saatchi Gallery in 2023. Upon graduating, she was selected for a residency at the Alexander MxQueen Foundation. In 2025 Lloyd exhibited work at the ICA for the New Contemporaries 75th exhibition.

Sophie sets the scene for material dramas. At first blush her work resembles stained-glass but something ‘other’ fills the leaded boundaries. Her medium of sugar and lead engages in a dialogue about the fleeting nature of contemporary existence and the complex relationship between consumption and self-awareness. She often caricatures the idea of ‘the perfect consumer’; insatiable and reduced to sleepless dopamine junkies. Although a preservative, the sugar material is known to crystalise, fade, and change over time. Her process is in many ways like a collaboration with an untamed animal as the sugar reacts to its environment and provocations in seemingly unpredictable ways. Her work is at times a kind of ‘comedy of errors’ as the sugar misbehaves within the constraints of ‘stained glass’.

Exhibitions:

Upcoming

3rd- 26th April. 'Spillâge', Haze Projects, Standpoint Gallery, London.
1st May - 22nd June, Royal Society of British Artist's 'Rising Stars', Royal Over-Seas League, London SW1

2025

January-March – House of Bandits, Selfridges, London.
January-March – New Contemporaries. ICA, London.

2024

November – Twilight Contemporary, 'Food as Origin', London
October – House of Bandits, 5 Carlos Place, London
September – Creative Connections Exhibition, 'Open House 2024' at The Art Workers Guild.
September- December – New Contemporaries. KARST gallery, The Levinsky Gallery, and Mirror, Plymouth 28 September - 7 December 2024. ICA, London 15 January - 23 March 2025.
August – Sarabande Summer Show, 'A Place' (Part 1 'Can I just...')
June – Cockpit Open Studios (Deptford), London
April – Graduate Gallery's 'Age of Aquarius', Portland Place, London W1
April – Royal Society of British Artist's 'Rising Stars', Royal Over-Seas League, London SW1
March – House of Bandits, Soho House (White City), London
January – ‘Horizon Reverie: Beyond the (H)edge’ curated by Saskia Portman, One Paved Court Gallery, London

2023

October – New Blood Emerging Art Prize Show, Saatchi Gallery, London
October – ‘Hall of Mirrors’ curated by Georgia Stephenson, Plop Residency, London
June – Degree Show, City and Guilds of London Art School, London

2022

September – ‘Permanent Temporary’ The Bottle Factory, London
June – ‘Impressions’ Ugly Duck Studios, London
April – ‘Model Village’ with Joe Moss. Take Courage Gallery, New Cross, London

2021

December – Group Show at Take Courage Gallery, New Cross, London
September – Display with the Creative Dimensions. Fortnum & Masons, London
August – ‘Intersection’ AMP Studios, London

Residencies:

2023-2024 Lee Alexander McQueen's Sarabande Foundation, London N1

Awards and Prizes:

2023 The Anthony Caro Sculpture Prize
2023 The Baton Art Prize
2023 New Blood Emerging Art Prize
2022 The Beckwith Scholarship and Travel Award
2021 Shortlisted for the Painter-Stainer’s’ Prize
2018 Shortlisted for the Young Artists’ Summer Show, Royal Academy

Events:

2024 April (Artist Crit) – Crit led by Sophie Lloyd and Stephen Akpo, Sarabande Foundation, London N1
2024 April (Workshop) – 'It's My Birthday And I'll Cry If I Want To', Sarabande Foundation, London N1
2023 November (Commission) – Featured artist for Sarabande Foundation Fundraiser, The Standard Hotel London WC1

Education:

2020-2023 Fine Art BA (first class) at City and Guilds of London Art School, London
2019-2020 Foundation Diploma in Art at Kingston School of Art, London

Press:

2025 The Sunday Times. Article, 'Join the hunt for the next David Hockey' by Waldemar Januszczak. link
2025 Studio International. Article, 'New Contemporaries'. link
2024 Grazia Magazine. Article, 'Renegades' by Divya Venkataraman p.56
2024 SHOWstudio. Article, 'Your Summer Guide To London's Best Cultural Hotspots' by Christina Donoghue.
2023 Sarabande Foundation. Article, 'Sophie Lloyd's Sugar Extravaganza at WOVEN' link
2023 New Blood Gallery. Blog, 'Sophie Lloyd: Inaugural winner of the Anthony Caro Sculpture Prize' link
2023 a-n Degree Shows Guide. Article, ‘Sweet but Sickly’ by Ellen Wilkinson p.36. link
2021 Artist Talk Magazine, Issue 15.

Artist Assistant Work:

2021-2022 Hew Locke, Procession, Tate Britain
2022 Dolly Kershaw, The Bomb Factory and Ugly Duck
2021 Vasundhara Sellamuthu, MA Show at City and Guilds of London Art School