Frieze Masters Talks

Cornelia Parker and Dr Maria Balshaw CBE in discussion.

• Cornelia Parker studied at the Gloucestershire College of Art and Design and Wolverhampton Polytechnic, and received her MFA from Reading University in 1982. Parker lives and works in London. She is well known for her large-scale, often site-specific, installations, the most recent being Transitional Object PsychoBarn‘ which is currently installed on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.  Her engagement with the fragility of existence and the transformation of materials is exemplified in two works: Cold Dark Matter (1991), a cartoon-like reconstruction of an exploded army shed, and Heart of Darkness (2004), the formal arrangement of charred remains from a forest fire.
• Maria Balshaw is Director of the Whitworth, part of the University of Manchester, and Manchester City Galleries.  As Director of these two major institutions, holding internationally important collections of fine and decorative art of more than 80,000 objects, she is responsible for the artistic and strategic vision for each gallery. An academic by training she has worked as a Director within the cultural sector for the past 15 years. Alongside her role as Director of Manchester City Galleries and the Whitworth Maria has recently taken on the role of Director of Culture for Manchester City Council. In April 2014 the Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport appointed Maria as a board member of Arts Council England.  Maria was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to the arts in June 2015.