Every Autumn Sean Williams and Tyler Mellins sensitively select and curate a show that showcases the wide-ranging practices and talents of artists who have studios at Yorkshire Artspace. I am pleased to have been one of the 40 artists selected this year. My sculpture ‘Optimistic Projection – Reach‘ is placed in the centre of the gallery, giving viewers plenty of space to walk around it and look both close up and at a distance. Yorkshire Artspace, Persistence Works, 21 Brown Street, Sheffield S1 2BS.
The exhibition coincides with the Yorkshire Artspace Open Studios on 15th & 16th November.
PV: 14th October, 6 – 9pm Curators Tour: 18th October, 11am Open: 15th October – 19th October 202511am – 7pm
Adding to the mix of cultural events across London coinciding with Frieze art fair, Hypha Studios are pleased to announce their exhibition A Moveable Feast. A curated exhibition of over 40 artists selected by renowned curator and art collector, Cathy Wills, all works will be available to purchase directly through Hypha Curates, a new sales platform designed to support the charitable work of Hypha Studios.
The title of the exhibition references Ernest Hemingway’s memoir of the same name. Presented in a dense and exciting salon style hang, the diverse mix of works – selected from over 900 applications to Hypha Curates – invite the visitor to draw new, unexpected, and rich connections across the mixed media curation. Just as Hemingway weaved together encounters with a diverse coterie of friends and figures of the time, Wills’ curation is intended to initiate new conversation rather than draw conclusions.
Highlights include Katherine Giordano’s oil painting Roaming Turf, a fragment of which is used on the exhibition promotional literature. Exploring the shifting ground between familiarity and estrangement, Giordano has a singular style here capturing in soft light a body at once relaxed and in comfort, but also compressed and seemingly confined. Another work, Weight / Tension / Restriction, by Gemma Holzer, is inspired by Neolithic sites and relics, but recomposed into a steel-framed construction with uncanny representations of unknown elements suspended by chains. Himani Gupta’s Lunar Crossings is an oil and pigment work inspired by a Tarkovsky film, foreground and background combining into one contemplative scene.
The Hypha Studios HQ gallery will be punctuated by sculpture. Sheffield-based artist Gillian Brent’sNot a Pair of Scales is a pillar topped by an assemblage of discarded materials, reforming nostalgia and familiarity. Lizzie Cardozeo explores the softness of breath and material volume with Folded Breath, a poetic conjoining of blown glass and rock. Aren’t you going to light them? II is an oak totem by Robin Bigret investigating industrially scarred landscapes and industrial fragments found within them.
The exhibition traverses pictorial to conceptual: Michalis Karaiskos’ Untitled (Partner) is a tender oil painting of a body leaning against a radiator, intimate and silently charged, while Rafa Roeder’s Useless Device is a sculptural “experimental machine” created to question the relationship between capital and technology.
A Moveable Feast marks the launch of Hypha Curates, a new purpose-driven online art sales platform designed to open the doors of collecting to wider audiences, directly supporting UK artists. Launched by arts charity Hypha Studios, the platform gives 70% of sales income directly to artists, with the remaining 30% funding Hypha Studios’ charitable work, which has already provided free studio and exhibition spaces for over 2,100 artists in 64 UK locations since 2021.
artists
Sarunas Berinas Ingrid Berthon-Moine Robin Bigret Gillian Brent Cas Campbell Lizzie Cardozo Sara Christova Gregory Daines Freddie Darke Pablo Delahaye Batool Desouky Naomi Ellis Archie Fooks-Smith Daniel Freytag Maxim Frolov
Katherine Giordano Tom Grace-Whittaker Himani Gupta Filip Haglund India Hanlon Gemma Holzer Harriet Horner Fan Ji Stuart Jones Michalis Karaiskos Matt Kavanagh Yewon Lee Margarita Loze Zoe Maxwell
Andia Coral Newton Chantel Okwesa Anna Reading Vivien Carolyn Reinert Rafa Roeder Diana Savostaite Benjamin Sebastian Ella Shepard Ewelina Skowronska Emily Tracy Marina Tsaregorodtseva Lily Wei Aleksandra Zawada
‘Not a Socket’, 2024. Steel, hardwood worktop offcuts, Jesmonite.
I am so pleased to have been selected for the Royal Society of Sculptors’ Summer Show this year. It is at Burgh House in Hampstead, London.
The Summer Show 2025 has been selected and curated by Polly Bielecka, Gallery Director, Pangolin London Sculpture Gallery and the theme she has selected for the show is ‘Sculpture in the Home’
About her choice of theme for the Summer Show 2025, Polly has said: ‘Given the unusual location of this year’s show, Burgh House, a beautiful 18th Century Queen Anne Style Home built in 1704 in the middle of Hampstead, the exhibition takes as its inspiration the innovative series of Post War touring exhibitions organised by the Arts Council under the title ‘Sculpture in the Home’. These exhibitions explored and celebrated the important role sculpture plays in a domestic environment.’
Exhibition: Thursday 17 July – Sunday 21 September
Opening times: Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays + Bank Holidays, 10am to 4pm
Address: Burgh House, New End Square, London, NW3 1LT
I am delighted to have had my sculpture ‘Argumentative Map – Middle’, 2024 selected for this exhibition.
The exhibition features an inspiring selection of works by artists over 50 who have not only honed their skills but have also navigated the challenging landscape of the art world with unwavering determination. It seeks to honour those who have consistently pushed forward, demonstrating that true artistic success is a marathon not a sprint.
View of exhibition with ‘Argumentative Map – High’, 2024, steel, Jesmonite, concrete in foreground and ‘Argumentative Map – Middle’, 2024, steel, elm, Jesmonite on the left. Other works L-R Day Bowman, Beatrice Galletley, Jackie Askew, Charlotte Cullen Ellen Ranson and Sheila Vollmer. Photo: Peter Griffiths
Abstract Vernacular – Continuing Conversations Hypha Studios Gallery 1, Sugar House Island 6 Sugar House Lane London E15 2QS
12 December 2024 – 18 January 2025
I have collaborated with fellow members of Talking Sculpture Making (TSM)Alexandra Harley and Sheila Vollmer to curate this exhibition of abstract sculpture and painting by nine multi-generational women and non-binary contemporary artists from London, the North and Ireland, hosted by HYPHA STUDIOS.
Many contemporary artists make works that are abstract, yet they do not define them as such. TSM want to reclaim the word and open up conversations about how abstract sculpture and painting speaks to many through their visual languages which, through use of material and space refers indirectly to the complex world we live in. Visual concepts of form, spatial relationships, presentation and visual independence will become apparent across the works in the show, fuelling discussions that explore and dissect the language surrounding the artists’ respective practices and how they each engage with ideas.
TSM has an established exhibition profile exploring contemporary abstract sculpture, generating dialogue and supporting multi-generational women’s practices in the genre.
Alongside the exhibition is a public discussion, chaired by eminent curator and writer Natalie Rudd, offering an exchange of ideas around the languages of abstract art and the evolving nature of women’s art practices, including the parallels between abstract painting and sculpture.
Private View – Thursday 12 December 2024, 6-9pm Exhibition open Thursday – Saturday, 12-6pm (Closed 22 – 29 December).
Free tour of exhibition by the artists on Sunday 15th December 2024, 2-4pm. Everyone welcome.
Free public discussion with the artists, chaired by Natalie Rudd Saturday 18th January 2025, 2-5pm. Everyone welcome.
“Not a Swarm’, 2023. Steel, oak, Jesmonite, concrete. Photo: Peter Griffiths
I am delighted to say I have had work selected for the third year running for the annual Autumn Almanac exhibition at Yorkshire Artspace that coincides with Open Studios. The show is curated by Sean Williams and Tyler Mellins and has works by 40 Yorkshire Artspace artists and makers.
The exhibition is open 2nd – 23rd November, Thursday – Saturday, 11 – 5 & all weekend of Open Studios, 16th and 17th November.
I also have two small pieces on show during the Open Studios weekend at Exchange Place Studios, as part of a display of works by artists who have participated in the ://Feedback sessions.
‘Not a Socket’, 2024. steel, hardwood, Jesmonite. Photo: Peter Griffiths
I am delighted to be showing two sculptures, ‘Not a Swarm’ and ‘Not a Fingerpost’ in this exhibition.
‘Not a Fingerpost’ 2023, steel, oak, Jesmonite and ‘Not a Swarm’, 2023, steel, oak Jesmonite, concrete
MATERIAL TRUTHS – Exploring the Substance of Sculpture The materiality of a sculpture affects and impacts on the viewer’s experience and engagement with its presence. The artist’s ideas, purpose, contextual backstory and expression is held in its form, its matter and the space it occupies. Materials and their different qualities will often determine the form and narrative of a work.
“Truth to Materials” was of fundamental importance to Henry Moore who stated “Every material has its own individual qualities. It is only when the sculptor works direct, when there is an active relationship with his material, that the material can take its part in the shaping of an idea”.
This is exhibition by Northern and Scottish members of The Royal Society of Sculptors seeks to freely explore individual members’ material truths.
The Old Parcels Office Art Space Westborough, Scarborough YO11 1TU
I am one of the speakers at the symposium Talking Sculpture: Dialects of Making, a collaboration between Talking Sculpture Making (TSM) and Vessel Gallery at York St John University. This symposium positions a distinctly community-driven and collaborative practice to extend the overdue conversation positioned by the current exhibition in Vessel of the same name. In refusing historical practices which have denied women artists space, the positioning of community building is integral to the ongoing feminist repositioning of abstract sculpture. Talking Sculpture: Dialects of Making supports a national and intergenerational dialogue of abstract sculptors working across the UK today, and holds space for ongoing discussion.
Keynote Speaker: Prof Griselda Pollock, feminist writer and academic.
Speakers: , Dr Victoria Sharples, Artist, curator, academic, Dr Julia McKinley, artist, academic, Natalie Rudd, curator, writer.
Panel: Gillian Brent, Katrina Cowling, Dr Charlotte Cullen, Alexandra Harley, Hannah Honeywill, Sheila Vollmer
Chairs: Becky Gee, curator, Sam Metz, artist, Sarah Roberts, artist, curator.
Hosted at York St John University, the symposium will coincide with, and act as, the closing event for the exhibition ‘Talking Sculpture: Dialects of Making’ at Vessel Gallery. This group exhibition includes Talking Sculpture Making (TSM) members Gillian Brent MRSS, Alexandra Harley MRSS, and Sheila Vollmer MRSS, alongside sculptors Katrina Cowling, Hannah Honeywill MRSS, and Dr Charlotte Cullen MRSS. This national and intergenerational exhibition of abstract sculpture will initiate a material discussion of women making abstract sculpture and situate the public discussion to be held through the symposium.
This method builds on TSM’s commitment to exhibiting as a space to initiate dialogue. These discussions have been recorded and made accessible through TSM’s website. The symposium will continue this action, recording the conversations held within the panel discussions so to reach a further public audience.
This symposium has been made possible with support from the Henry Moore Foundation and York St John University.
The exhibition ‘Talking Sculpture: Dialects of Making’, supported by Vessel in association with Talking Sculpture Making (TSM) brings together a national and intergenerational group of artists working in abstract sculpture. ‘Talking Sculpture‘ forefronts the material investigation and material conditions of making sculpture engaged in formal and material conversations of the medium and reasserts the importance of feminist legacies in understanding the ongoing importance of abstract sculpture.
L-R Sculpture by Alexandra Harley, Gillian Brent, Jill Gibson Photo: Peter Griffiths
I am showing work in ‘Still Here: Women Making Abstract Sculpture‘, an exhibition investigating the position and relevance of women’s abstract sculpture in today’s contemporary art scene.
The exhibition is presented by This Stuff Matters, an exhibiting group and discussion forum of four women abstract sculptors; myself, Jill Gibson, Alexandra Harley, and Sheila Vollmer. We have invited two early career women sculptors Beatrice Galletley and Anna Reading to join us for this exhibition.
The exhibition takes place at APT Gallery in Deptford, London, 9th – 26th March 2023, open Thursday to Sunday, 12.00 – 5.00 pm. The private view is on International Women’s Day, 8th March 6 – 8pm. https://www.aptstudios.org
A discussion event in the gallery on 11th March, 2 – 4 pm, has been recorded and is available online.
This Stuff Matters (TSM) was formed in 2019 to share the experiences of the four women artists and to provide and generate support and shared networks. All four artists are critically engaged and have been working and exhibiting individually and with other groups, nationally and internationally, since the 1980s.
Each artist plays confidently with form, material, colour, space and scale yet each artist’s work is distinct in the use of abstraction and construction. There is a definite sense of a visual language emerging from a female viewpoint. We are all avid feminists, although our work stretches beyond an exploration of feminist issues. The group endeavours to be perceived, first and foremost, as artists, however a feminist perspective is occasionally apparent in the work of individuals. It is the making, the materials and the construction, which is the predominant driving force.
By inviting two younger female sculptors to exhibit works alongside the TSM artists, the exhibition provides a new and exciting dynamic and offers alternative perspectives on how women artists of different generations navigate this particular area of sculpture practice.
The exhibition showcases work which examines sculptural abstraction and considers its importance and relevance today. It is an opportunity to have a broader dialogue with audiences, including artists, students, art historians, academics, gallery visitors and interested parties regarding the history of and future generations of women who make abstract sculpture.
There is still underrepresentation of women working in abstraction, and TSM hope to redress this imbalance with ‘Still Here’. By documenting our roles as women abstract sculptors and by sharing experiences, we hope to augment our voices and provide a valuable platform for mentoring each other collectively.
TSM also aim to celebrate of the lives of women abstract artists and provide a platform for women’s experiences within what is and has been inherently a traditional male dominated area of the visual arts.
TSM intend for the public discussion event, held on 11th March 2023 and the resources that result from it to be a springboard for feedback on our practices as well as help gain an understanding of our positions with an art world that is dominated by image-based and socially engaged art practice and how we fit in the current understanding of identity politics.
‘Somewhere in the 1990s, the artist in her studio took a permanent backseat to the politics of assertion: the declarations of race, sexuality, and class. ‘Preciousness’ became a term used to denigrate abstraction. And yet the qualities it implied were arguably symptomatic of abstraction: a sensitivity to objects, and the disquieting intensity devoted to the process of making them.’
Jenni Sorkin art historian, critic Associate Professor of Contemporary Art History at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
L-R sculpture by Anna Reading, Sheila Volmer, Beatrice Galletley, Gillian Brent, Jill Gibson and Alexandra Harley. Photo: Peter Griffiths
