Annie Cattrell RSA was born in Glasgow and studied Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art before completing Masters degrees at the University of Ulster and at the Royal College of Art. Her practice is often informed by working with specialists in neuroscience, meteorology, engineering, psychiatry and the history of science. This cross-disciplinary approach has enabled her to learn about cutting edge research and in depth information in these fields. She is particularly interested in the parallels and connections that can be drawn between art, science and the poetic.
Cattrell has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally including in: Medicine and Art (imaging the future for life and love) Mori Museum, Tokyo; Out of the Ordinary at the V and A in London; Not Nothing, curated by MUKA, Antwerp; Invisible Worlds at Freiburg Kunstverein, Germany; The Body, Art and Science, National Museum in Stockholm; Einfach Complex at Museum Gestaltung in Zurich; Paper Cuts, Fredericke Taylor Gallery, New York and On the Edge for the Humboldt University in Berlin. Cattrell's work is held by public collections including at the MacManus Art Gallery and Museum, Dundee; Aberdeen Art Gallery; the Wellcome Trust, London; and Edinburgh City Art Centre. In 2008 she jointly won the International Bombay Sapphire Prize.
Cattrell has undertaken many large-scale public art commissions including Echo at the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail; 0 to 10,000,000 for the award winning Bio-chemistry Department at Oxford University designed by architects Hawkins Brown; and Resounding for Oxford Brookes University. Transformation for the Science Centre at Anglia Ruskin University. Recently she was Lead Artist at New Museum Site at Cambridge University, where she completed a public commission Remains to be Seen situated at the Old Cavendish Laboratories and Student Services Building.
Cattrell has been a tutor at the Royal College of Art since 2000 and has lectured in many art colleges including Edinburgh School of Art; University of the Arts, London; University of Ulster, Belfast; University of Southern Australia; Alfred University, New York; and Goldsmith, University of London. As well as being an elected Member of the Royal Scottish Academy, Cattrell is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors.