Boyd won The Shell Waterloo Painting 1981 prize, a major competitive commission awarded by
Shell UK to produce a painting measuring 3 m x 10 m for exhibition above the South Bank exit of
London Waterloo station. Filmed by the BBC throughout its progress in the studio and on site, the result was a large canvas entitled
Generation of Alternatives. The same year she exhibited in Summer Show 1, along with Andrew Darke,
Andy Goldsworthy and Steve Joy at the
Serpentine Gallery, London. Boyd concentrated on
colour field painting until 1990 when ideas concerning the interdependence of time, memory and consciousness demanded a new medium able to express the inherent temporal nature of these concepts. Light itself would replace paint while in the drawings, charcoal dust would become the primary medium. Beginning with the series,
Water Course i–iii (1993) using plaster dust, mirror and projected light, Boyd's installations would experiment with refraction and reflection. In 1995, Boyd exhibited
To the Warder of Things Present, a solo exhibition at Stichting de Achterstraat, Hoorn, Netherlands. In 1999 she exhibited
Out of Bounds in May Show at the
British School at Rome. Also that year, in
No Added Sugar, a group show with Kate Davis and Terry Smith curated by Roberto Annecchini at Change Studio d'Arte Contemporanea, Boyd exhibited
It was Today and in
Grottesche curated by Domenico Scudero she exhibited
Gathering Worlds at Ex-chiesa di S. Stefano,
Tivoli. Boyd's site-specific installation,
Chancing the Circle (1999) was installed in the
Pantheon, Rome in May 1999. One example of her use of natural light and mirror is
Perfect Stranger (2000), which explores, at a particular moment, the sense of place contained within the surfaces and cavities of a moulded ceiling. Boyd's
Living Memory (1988)
Artspace Sydney, Australia and
Grounded in Time 1989
University of Surrey Guildford, UK are examples of solo exhibitions which featured large-scale drawing installations. Boyd's work,
Water Haulage iii (1991) was selected for the 10th Cleveland International Drawing Biennale (1991). In conclusion of a Residency at the
Warburg Institute,
University of London, Boyd exhibited two works
Double Volume (2001) and
Palindrome (2001), a transcription of
Las Meninas (1656) by
Diego Velázquez. In 2006 Boyd returned to the University of London as
Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow to engage in a new work entitled
Concrete Liaisons (2006), a major light-based installation for the facades of Senate House Tower,
Malet Street London. In 2011 she was appointed Brown Foundation Fellow, a fellowship programme administered by the Museum of Fine Arts Houston at Dora Maar House,
Ménerbes, France. Boyd's installation
Vacant Possession (2011) was sited on the ground floor of former home of surrealist photographer
Dora Maar. == Honours and awards ==