Exhibitions

Gillian Brent's practice investigates the physical presence, purpose and significance of structures in the environment, and how they affect people's social and intuitive behaviour. Her installations question and react to the notion of functionality, cause and effect. Often the resulting works appear to have a practical purpose but are in fact anti-function.

The work is constructed using formal and aesthetic relationships that allude to existing objects (architectural, industrial, functional, environmental), creating new ones that synthesise and subvert the artist's experiences and perceptions of the world.

The scale and nature of the work is ideal for exhibiting outside, yet Gillian finds exhibiting in a gallery context is as important as it brings a different relationship with the audience.

Gillian has worked with welded steel for most of her career, working both with and against its structural and industrial properties. She now mixes it with other 'real world' materials and her installations employ a variety of media for their metaphorical as well as physical qualities.

Performance

21 June 2012
Underscore, The Hepworth Wakefield.

Solo shows

2008 Thicket, Persistence Works, Sheffield.
2006 Outlook, The Architecture Centre, Bristol.
Derby Museum & Art Gallery
Pickford's House, Derby.
2004 Surface tension, Harley Gallery, Welbeck, Nottinghamshire.
2001 Standing ground, Wysing Arts, Cambridge.
- Timesight, 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe.
2000 Building sight, Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery.
1999 New Steel Sculpture, Rufford Craft Centre, Notts.
- Steel Placement, Sanctuary Courtyard, Upper Chapel, Sheffield.
1998 Household Names, Stockport Art Gallery.
1994 Wall-based sculpture, Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax.
1993 Prema Arts Centre, Uley, Gloucestershire.
1990 Woodlands Art Gallery, London.
1988 Worcester City Art Gallery.

Selected group shows

2011 Creekside Open, APT Gallery, London
- Guest artist, Rotherham Open, Rotherham Arts Centre.
2002/03/04/05/07 Newby Hall Sculpture Park, North Yorkshire.
2004 Secret Garden, Winter Gardens, Millennium Gallery, Sheffield.
2003-04 Drawn from Nature, Exbury Gardens, Hants.
2003 Art in the Garden 4, Sir Harold Hillier Gardens and Arbouretum, Hants.
- Art Outside, The Savill Gardens, Windsor.
2000 Sampled, Rotherham Art Gallery.
1999 Created Space, Atrium Gallery, London.
- Inside Out, Art.Co, Leeds.
1998 Present Space, two person show with Monair Hyman, Wrexham Arts Centre.
- House Room, Ruskin Craft Gallery, Sheffield.
1996 Outer Limits, two person sculpture show,
Mid Pennine Gallery, Burnley.
- Engineering Art, Swan Hunter Shipyard, Wallsend.
1994 Furniture, Fun and Fantasy, Mid Pennine Arts, Burnley.
1993 Metal Sculpture, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham.
1992 Steel, Image and Industry, Untitled Gallery, Sheffield.
1990 Movement, Piece Hall Art Gallery, Halifax.
1989 Forging Ahead, Rufford Craft Centre, Notts.
- New Art in Sheffield, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield.
1984 - 1985 Have You Seen Sculpture From The Body?,
Tate Gallery, London and toured.
1983 Woodlands Art Gallery.