Cathy de Monchaux
British artist (born 1960)
Cathy de Monchaux (born 1960) is a British sculptor.
Early life and education
Born in London, daughter of the sculptor Paul de Monchaux, de Monchaux earned her BA at the Camberwell School of Art (1980–1983) and an MA at Goldsmiths College, University of London (1985–1987).
Style and career
Her sculptures use materials such as glass, paper, metal, fur and leather. Her works juxtapose seductive, soft elements, sometimes associated with strongly sexual overtones, with harder materials, often spikey or in some way appearing to constrain the softer parts, resulting in work which is both sensual and threatening. Her 1997 exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in particular made reference to organic forms (crustacea, fossils), animals, erotic and fetishistic imagery, turn of the century decorative traditions, architectural detailing and saintly relics.
She won a Steinberger Group Award in 1988 and the London Arts Individual Artist's Award in 1989.
De Monchaux's work from the early 1990s was often characterised by the combination of red velvet and steel in simple and strong constructions, but later works have tended to move towards lighter colours and a more ornamental approach.
De Monchaux was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1998. She lives and works in London and teaches part-time at the Slade School of Fine Art.
In her recent work, such as The Raft (2016) and State Secrets (2014), de Monchaux has concentrated more on subjects such as battles, unicorns and imagery confusing fauna, mineral and flora.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5053516. VIAF identifies the subject as 4519589. The Library of Congress control number is no96007326. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1960, 1980, 1983 and 1985.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cathy de Monchaux” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.