dialogue
Victoria Gill | Artist
November 2025
6 min read
Artist Victoria Gill, a former Brave Space recipient, came to art through an unconventional route. After studying American Studies at the University of Sussex. Her early work involved subtle interventions in workplaces and streets, what she calls “public tweaks” or “tests.” This way of working laid the foundation for her practice, even as her work has taken many forms.
Her acclaimed Show of Stolen Goods began with a public callout asking people to share items taken from their jobs. The project evolved into a London exhibition and later a New York iteration staged inside a U-Haul truck - a witty nod to mobility, labour, and collective mischief.
Now studying at the Royal Academy, Gill continues to expand her practice in new contexts. Having long worked with what she calls “owned objects, not found,” she reclaims the everyday as material for acts of agency and humour. From quiet interventions to public disruptions, her work continues to probe how art and ownership move through the world.
Victoria Gill, Excerpts from: Can you eat a hotdog and smoke a cigarette at the same time? 2023-2024. Video courtesy of the artist.
Hey Victoria! Could you take us back to the beginning? Where did you grow up, and how would you describe your formative years? Was art a part of your childhood at all?
”I grew up in Leeds. I didn’t grow up going to galleries or discussing contemporary art. But my dad is probably one of the most creative people I know, so I was around him drawing, or when I got abit older, and iPads came out, he would sit for hours making a “sound” piece. Like arts for art sake and out of context. Which I found very embarrassing growing up to be honest. And now I see so much of myself in both my parents.”
Victoria Gill. Photo by Sarah Larby.
The show of stolen goods, New York version was in a U-Haul, that was such a bold, mobile idea. What inspired you to do a show in that unconventional format?
“After collecting items people had stolen from work, through a callout and doing a London show. Some of my mates in New York wanted to submit and also Jack Chase, who’d followed the London show, said let’s do a New York version. Jack said I know this guy, James (Sunquist) who had just started a gallery in a Uhual. It seemed a perfect fit, it also allowed us to pull up outside institutions and reach different demographics. The stolen goods show was a success and Jack and James now run Uhaul Gallery together.”
Victoria Gill, Excerpts from: Can you eat a hotdog and smoke a cigarette at the same time? 2023-2024. Video courtesy of the artist.
In collecting items people have stolen from work, are there any patterns or stories that have emerged that surprised you?
”Across the board, it seems people love to steal from work.”
Victoria Gill. Photo by Sarah Larby.
When you first started exhibiting your work publicly, were there any lessons you picked up on your journey of sharing your ideas with the world?
”Exhibiting is one thing, but I will say, I started making work in public, testing things out in public before I even knew what conceptual or performance art was, these “tests”, like filming my mates doing a movement on shift, or secretly changing the floor in some way and seeing if it changed the way people walked, or working with the general public with a performance idea on the way to work. Thus, I was already getting general questions of like why and how, before I knew. These tests can go on for years or months.”
Victoria Gill. Photo by Sarah Larby.
Can you take us back to the moment you opened your acceptance email from the Royal Academy, where were you, how did you feel, and who was the first person you shared the exciting news with?
“I was at work. I didn’t really tell anyone at my job that I’d applied, but my good mate Lottie was also working that day. So I told her, I was very surprised, I really never intended to study an art masters, never mind attend the Royal Academy. I applied because a curator I respected had asked for a studio visit a couple of times, and I was being evasive because I didn’t have a studio at that time. They figured that out and said, ok you don’t have a studio, that's ok, it seems like you work in a way that you don’t need one, I kinda get what you’re trying to do. In the same conversation, as I was saying I didn’t go to art school/ I’m not particularly interested in it, they said have you thought about the Royal Academy. That conversation was in October and I applied in December.“
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