Seeking out playful forms or objects with mesmeric surfaces is ritual, from a gold-tipped cigarette butt, crushed soda cans spread like scabby spillages, a glistening smashed wing-mirror, artillery-like NOS bulbs and garish fake nails. Discarded junk, found matter and castings feed into reconfiguring structures until something holds, says something.
Conjured from defunct yet intrinsically latent matter, work manifests itself through a series of initiations and metaphorical elements. Arrangements of acrobatically stacked, bundled or tentatively balanced forms are instilled with personal narratives and references, from the mundane to the esoteric. However, it’s not necessary for these to define the work; what it’s curious about is how it may toy or create a tension with how it is read, from say the seemingly flirty to a more unsettling or sinister underbelly.
Assemblages are mostly displayed in groupings or perform as a sequence, where a system, numerological element or notion of magical thinking plays an underlying and consolidating role. A habitual urge to collect and reimagine matter; perhaps a way of filtering an external, over-stimulated and saturated world internally, or at times endeavouring to make sense of the chaos - these days increasingly so.
CV
born: London UK
now: East Sussex UK
solo exhibitions
2021 manic panic: Pallas Projects, Dublin
2018 peck o' trouble: The Regency Town House, Brighton
1999 Relax: Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London
1995 Fine Specimens: Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London
1993 Ants in Your Pants: Rebecca Hossack Gallery@ St. James’s Piccadilly, London
1992 Serious Tin: Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London
group exhibitions | projects
2022 Things will Continue to Change…: The Koppel Project Hive, London
2021 Back to Nature (phase 2): Full Frontal Eastbourne, East Sussex | ABCOA: Artists’ Book Cooperative (international network)
2020 Greenness is a Kind of Grief: Y.A.R.D. Project Space - postponed until Spring 2022* | Message on a Bottle: 201 Telephone Box Gallery, Fife | Reflections: Museum of Ordinary People, Newhaven
2019 Haiku: Window Gallery, Phoenix Art Space, Brighton | TIME after [ ( ) ] after TIME: The Briggait, Glasgow | Library in a Day: Fabrica, Brighton
2017 Be Right Back: Rhoda Street Studios, London | In Nothing Flat: Old Granada Studios, Manchester | Exeter Contemporary Open: Exeter Phoenix | Collective: Devonshire Collective, Eastbourne
2016 Then Me Too: John Marchant Gallery in association with Galerie Simpson, Swansea | Europa: Transition Gallery, London | Then Me: John Marchant Gallery in association with Eagle Gallery and Emma Hill London | Salvage. Restore. Repair: Gallery202, Northamptonshire
2015 A.P.T Creekside Open: selected by Richard Deacon: A.P.T Gallery, London
2014 Thinking / Drawing: Curious Projects, Eastbourne | Sussex Open: Towner Gallery, Eastbourne
2010 think. make.: Camberwell College of Arts | Gift: Camberwell College of Arts | oh madm: Camberwell College of Arts
2000 England & Co. Gallery, London
1999 Cambridge Contemporary Art Gallery, Cambridge | Pam Schomberg Gallery, Colchester
1998 Cambridge Contemporary Art Gallery, Cambridge | Pam Schomberg Gallery, Colchester
1997 Pam Schomberg Gallery, Colchester
1996 The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh | Pam Schomberg Gallery, Colchester
1995 Spring Greens: Pam Schomberg Gallery, Colchester | The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
1994 Animal Magic: Brewery Arts Centre, Cirencester | Exhibition of Sorts: Gallery 47, London | Gifts for Valentine: Ruthin Crafts Centre, Clwyd | Christmas Exhibition: Ruthin Craft Centre, Clwyd | Christmas Exhibition: New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham | Christmas Exhibition: Pam Schomberg Gallery, Colchester | Open Sesame: The Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal, Cumbria | The Craft Centre + Foyer Gallery, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester | Bluecoat Display Centre, Bluecoat Chambers, Liverpool | Box Art: Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery
1993 Christmas Exhibition: Pam Schomberg Gallery, Colchester | Christmas Exhibition: New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham | Art in Boxes III: England & Co. Gallery, London | Bluecoat Display Centre, Bluecoat Chambers, Liverpool | The Summer Exhibition: Andrew Usiskin Gallery, London | The Craft Centre + Foyer Gallery, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester | Stars: Southern Arts touring exhibition: Banbury Museum, West Dean College, Isambard Brunel School, Fair Oak School, Scaplen’s Court Museum, Westbury Manor Museum and Walford Mill Craft Centre
1992 Decorative Arts Show: Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London | The Poetry Show: Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London | Art in Boxes II: England & Co. Gallery, London | Animalarium: Arthouse Route 76 Gallery, London | Music of the Spheres: Rebecca Hossack Gallery@ St. James’s Piccadilly, London | Fine....Cannibals: organised by the ‘Designer-Maker Network’ touring exhibition: Oldham Art Gallery, Peter Scott Gallery Lancaster, Stockport Art Gallery and Warrington Museum and Art Gallery
1991 Salvaged! Art in a Throwaway World: Royal Festival Hall, London | Art in Boxes: England & Co. Gallery, London
1990 Storm: Association of Illustrators Gallery (AOI), London
residencies | awards | membership
2019 Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) International Residency
2018 a-n The Artists Information Company: Mentoring Bursary
2017 Mark Devereux Projects: StudioBook17
2015 MRBS | Member of the Royal Society of Sculptors
publications
2024 A3/4 publication by Fifthsyllable: Issue 9
2022 studio international magazine: Things Will Continue to Change …
2022 All About Shipping magazine: Things Will Continue to Change .London artists'’ new work on show in aftermath of the pandemic
2021 ABCOA: ABC Artists’ Books Coooperative: Certificate of Authenticity (CoA)
2018 peck o’ trouble: exhibition catalogue, self published
2016 Garageland magazine Issue #20: Remake Remodel
1995 The Sunday Telegraph: A Posy for Mother’s Day - Britain’s top artists create original bouquets
1992 Benson and Hedges: calendar (photography Sam Haskins)
1991 20/20 European magazine: Zodiacs
1990 Creative Review Magazine: Squaring Up to the Market
education
2010 Camberwell College of Arts UAL - MA (Distinction)
1990 Camberwell College of Arts UAL - BA (First)
associate lecturer
2011 Working Men’s College Camden
2006 - 2011 Wimbledon College of Art UAL
1993 - 2004 Richmond Upon Thames College
1992 In association with Manchester Metropolitan University: student studio placements