Olivia Turner is an interdisciplinary artist. Her diverse practice includes sculpture, performance, installation, moving image, and writing. She is a member of the artist collective, Hypha. Olivia is a postdoctoral researcher at the Edinburgh Centre for Research on the Experience of Dementia and Associate Lecturer in Fine Art at Newcastle University. In 2022, she successfully completed a practice-led PhD at Newcastle University, recipient of the Research Excellence Academy Studentship. Her PhD title is 'Between Doctor, Patient and Cadaver: The Slippages of the Visceral Body in Medicine'.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2024
Interlaced, Group exhibition with Hypha Collective, Constantine Gallery, Middlesbrough Art Weekender
Voicing Objects, Solo Show at the Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne
2023
Hypha (2023) Group exhibition with Hypha Collective, St. John’s Church, Healey
2022
The Way My Body Feels, Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne
Patient-Doctor Intimates, Confabulations, Online [International Film Screening].
O (Symptom) (2022) Watershed, Bristol
You Echo Through Time, Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne, national Being Human Festival [Exhibition and performance]
O, MFA and PhD exhibition at Newcastle University, XL Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
Confusion of Tongues, SpeakEasy, AirSpace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent
The Body, Zest Hall [Online], Round Lemon
2020
O, XL Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
Archival Imaginarium, Thinking Through Things [Online] Wellcome Collection
2019
New Sculpture for 2019, Exhibition, Cheeseburn, Northumberland
2018
Women and Power: Switched on! Shining a light on female innovation, collaborator Dr Pavandeep Rai, Cragside National Trust, Northumberland
Palace of Science, Wylam Brewery, Newcastle upon Tyne
A Seat at the Table, curated by Gayle Meikle, Gallery North, Newcastle upon Tyne
2017
S T R E T C H, Galleri Bokboden, Bergen, Norway
Reality Check, The NewBridge Project, Gateshead
Valence, Vane, Newcastle upon Tyne
BISH, BASH, BOSH, WE ARE THE NORTH, Liverpool
Moving on up, Moving on out, The NewBridge Project, Newcastle upon Tyne
2016
Newcastle University Degree Show, Newcastle University & The Great North Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle University Degree Show, Copeland Gallery, Peckham, London
Circus Between Worlds, Glasgow International, UK
DECAPOD - AirSpace Gallery 10th Birthday, AirSpace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent
2015
Art Site, Whitley Bay Film Festival
Invisible Cities, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
If I could sink my teeth into the earth, Ex-Libris Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
2014
Consuming Spaces, Strømgaten 1 & C. Sundtsgate 15, Bergen, Norway
Urban Art in Context: not cold, Rom8, Bergen, Norway
located, identified and clearly marked. Live Performance, Skottesalen, Bergen, Norway
2013
The Line- Performed, Burned, Folded & Thrown, PH Space, NewBridge Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
PUBLICATIONS
Turner, O., Anderson, P., Waite., S. ‘You Echo Through Time: Shining a Light on Women in Antiquity’ (2026) Pedagogies in Practice. Routledge. (Accepted and forthcoming).
Turner, O., ‘Performing in between doctor, patient and cadaver’ (2025) Routledge Companion to Performance and Science. Routledge. (Accepted and forthcoming).
Turner, O., ‘Creative reflections on embodied filmmaking: In, through and between the senses and spaces of the medicalized body’ (2024) The Senses and Society, Special Issue. (By invitation). (Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17458927.2024.2390729).
Turner, O., Voicing Objects (2024) Great North Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne [Exhibition publication].
Turner, O., ‘Reimagining Medical Encounters and Intimacies’ (2023) Interconnections, Special Issue (Available at: https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/posthumanismstudies/article/view/4360).
Turner, O., and Waite, S. ‘Corporeal Pedagogy: Visualising anatomy through art, archaeology and medicine’ (2023) Biomedical Visualization, in L. Shapiro (ed.). Springer International Publishing. (By invitation) (Available at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-39035-7_11).
(2023) Sensitive Subjects: Acknowledging Complexity in Creative Practice Ethics, The Polyphony [Blog] (Available at: https://thepolyphony.org/2023/10/10/sensitive-subjects-pt-3-acknowledging-complexity-in-creative-practice-ethics/).
(2023) Sensitive Subjects: Creative Practice and Ethics in Times of Loss, The Polyphony [Blog] (Available at: https://thepolyphony.org/2023/09/22/sensitive-subjects-pt-2-creative-practice-and-ethics-in-times-of-loss/)
(2023) Sensitive Subjects: Consent in Creative Practice Research, The Polyphony [Blog] (Available at: https://thepolyphony.org/2023/09/15/sensitive-subjects-pt-1-consent-in-creative-practice-research/)
Turner, O. Breath (2021) Tendon, John Hopkins University, USA [Publication].
RESIDENCIES
(2017- 2021) Wellcome Trust Centre for Mitochondrial Research, Newcastle upon Tyne
(2017) Bones, The Great North Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne
(2016) Pearey House Centre for Visually Impaired, Royal National Institute for Blind People, North Shields
(2015) Residency alongside artists Bridget Kennedy, Mair Hughes and Katie McGown, Ex-Libris Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
EDUCATION
(2016-2022) PhD in Fine Art, fully funded Research Excellence Academy Studentship, Newcastle University. Title: Between Doctor, Patient and Cadaver: The Slippages of the Visceral Body in Medicine. Supervised by Katie Cuddon, Dr Ed Juler and Prof. Andrew Burton.
(2016-2017) Postgraduate Certificate in Research Training, Newcastle University, Distinction with special commendation
(2016-2017) The Collective Studio, The NewBridge Project, Newcastle upon Tyne
(2012-2016) BA Hons Fine Art, Newcastle University, First Class Degree
(2014) Erasmus Exchange, Bergen Academy of Art and Design, Norway
(2010-2011) Foundation Course: Fine Art, Newcastle College
AWARDS and FUNDING
(2025) British Academy Early Career Network Development Fund
(2023-24) Voicing Objects, Wellcome Trust ISSF and Catherine Cookson Foundation
(2022) Shining a Light on Women and Children in Antiquity, Arts and Humanities Research Council
(2021-22) Corporeal Pedagogies, Catherine Cookson Foundation, Newcastle University's Institutes for Creative Arts Practice and Humanities
(2021) Thinking Through Things ECR Project Support Grant, Thinking Through Things: Object Encounters in the Medical Humanities
(2019-2021) Wellcome Trust Discretionary Award, Thinking Through Things: Object Encounters in the Medical Humanities
(2019-2021) Wellcome Trust ISSF Small Grant, The Visceral Body in Medicine
(2019-2021) HaSS Research Institutes Awards
(2019) Research Excellence Academy Travel Scholarship, Italy
(2018) EngageFMS & Newcastle University Institute for Creative Arts Practice Award
(2017) Challenge Labs Project Award, The Newcastle University Humanities Research Institute
(2017) Postgraduate Research Teaching Scholarship, Newcastle University
(2017) The Newcastle University Institute for Creative Arts Practice Award
(2016 - 2019) Research Excellence Academy Studentship (REA), fully funded practice-led Fine Art PhD
(2015) The Bartlett Travel Scholarship
(2014) Studentship Prize, Newcastle University
WORKSHOPS
(2023) Thinking Through Medicine with Artmaking, led alongside Dr Kate Stobbart at Sunderland University.
(2021) The Way My Body Feels, 4 workshops in the series, Newcastle University and the Great North Museum
(2020) (un)Masking the Wellcome Collection, led by Ilaria Grando and Olivia Turner (online)
(2019) The Way My Body Feels, Newcastle University
(2019) Patient Day, Crowne Plaza, Newcastle upon Tyne
(2018) Public Engagement in Medical Science, collaboration between Wellcome Trust and National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement, funded participation by Wellcome Trust
(2018) Sculpting our Insides, Lily Foundation Family Weekend, Warwick; sculpture workshop with patients and families affected by mitochondrial disease
(2015) Beyond Frontiers, West Jesmond Primary School; A community engaged project exploring past and present identities and human diversity with the aim of promoting mutual respect and understanding within local communities. Collaboration between Newcastle University’s Archaeology, Classics, History and Fine Art Departments. Using the Shefton Collection as part of a series of workshops at West Jesmond Primary School and the Great North Museum
(2015) ACT 1 ¦ ACT 2, Newcastle University; drawing and performance workshop with Fine Art undergraduate students
(2015) Drawing from Life, Ex-Libris Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne; drawing workshop with Fine Art staff and undergraduate students from Archaeology, History, Fine Art and Medical Science
TALKS and EVENTS
(2025) Dance Research Matters Festival 2025, Coventry University, AHRC showcase.
(2025) British Society of Gerontology 54th Annual Conference, University of Surrey.
(2025) Meaningful Evaluation in Arts & Dementia, Arts, Play, Health, online talk.
(2024) Interlaced, with curators Becky Gee and Natalie Rudd, MIMA (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art).
(2023) 3rd Humanities in Medicine Symposium, University of Sunderland School of Medicine.
(2022) BMJ Medical Humanities: Body Talk: “Corporeal Pedagogies” with Dr Sally Waite and Dr Olivia Turner [Podcast]. 22 August 2022.
(2022) Being Human Festival
(2022) Confabulations, Patient-Doctor Intimates - With Dr Alison Syme
(2022) Medical (Post)Humanities Conference, University of Sheffield.
(2022) Care + Crisis: Spaces of Performance, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London.
(2022) Senses and Modern Health/care Environments, University of Bristol.
(2022) Humanities in Medicine Symposium, Sunderland University
(2021) Thinking Through Things & Film Screening, Invisibility: Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research 4th Annual Congress, Durham University (Online)
(2020) Thinking Through Things with Wellcome ECR training day, Wellcome Collection, London
(2020) Archival Imaginarium, Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research 4th Annual Congress, University of Sheffield
(2019) Artist Talk, EXPLORE: Lifelong Learning, Newcastle upon Tyne
(2019) Interdisciplinary Conversations Around Making, Symposium, Newcastle University
(2015) If I could Sink My Teeth into the Whole Earth, Chaired debate between Dr Stephen Moonie, Olivia Turner, Bridget Kennedy and Dr Mark Jackson, Ex Libris Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
TEACHING
(2017 - Ongoing) Newcastle University, Associate Lecturer in Fine Art.
(2023 - 2024) Newcastle University, Associate Lecturer in Art History.
(2021 - 2025) Newcastle University, Seminar leader, History, Classics and Archaeology Department. Teaching on the Bodies, Sex and Identities in Classical Greece third year module; looking at innovative and interdisciplinary methodologies in relation to the study of anatomical votives, the body and identity.
(2019) Postgraduate Teacher in Anatomy and Clinical Skills for Dentistry students. Seminar leader for students’ first experience in the Dissection Room.