Jasleen Kaur is a critically acclaimed Scottish artist and silversmith whose work explores the entanglements of identity, migration, memory and material culture.
Born in Glasgow to a Sikh-Punjabi family, Kaur’s practice is rooted in the cultural hybridity of the South Asian diaspora, drawing on domestic rituals, oral histories, and inherited objects to inform a strikingly contemporary visual language.
A graduate of the Glasgow School of Art and the Royal College of Art, Kaur has developed a multidisciplinary approach that moves fluidly between jewellery, sculpture, installation, sound, and silversmithing. Her work is known for its inventive use of both precious and everyday materials, plastic containers, steel utensils, Irn-Bru bottles, family photographs, reframed and recontextualised into powerful statements on belonging, colonial histories and resistance.
In 2024, Kaur achieved international recognition when she was awarded the Turner Prize for her work Alter Altar, a deeply personal and politically resonant installation presented at Towner Eastbourne. Described as a “living shrine to memory, ancestry and overlooked artefacts of domestic life,” the piece encapsulated her approach: bridging the sacred and the ordinary, and questioning who gets to assign cultural value.
Kaur’s silverwork, often embedded within larger social projects or sculptural environments, pushes the boundaries of craft tradition, repositioning silversmithing as a critical and conceptual tool. Alongside her studio practice, she frequently works with community groups, and her pieces have been exhibited internationally at venues including Art Night London, BALTIC, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
