About Sarah Needham, Artist
To make enquiries please email sarahneedham@artfromlodonmarkets.com
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An artist concerned with human inter-connectedness, and the interplay between the personal and the universal as expressed though the material of pigment. |
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Artist’s Statement
I start with the way in which pigments leave material colour across human history and geography leaving traces of our interactions. The projects chosen have resonance with the now. The form of the work is abstract spaces to fall into. I make oil paints by hand from the relevant pigments. Each collection has an historic or geographic specificity: I have visited the 20,000 year old cave paintings in Pech Merle and learned about the material traceability of ochres and that a prehistoric artist might have travelled long distances: Researching the British Library archive I found the historical spread of cobalt based glass and glazes through archaeological finds, which illustrated the expanse of cultural exchange during classical and pre-classical times. Researching the pigments listed in the Bristol Library’s Presentiment Papers (1770Jan-June), I found evidence of transatlantic indigo just like St Katharine’s (see below) , but also of madder, ochre and verdigris in a little pocket of peaceful trade between the European wars. I looked through The Admiralty papers at the National Archive, to find pigments in ships captured by privateers during the Anglo Dutch Wars. Inspired by Turner’s Slave ship I have researched the pigments imported into St Katharine docks at the time of the abolitionist movement, and found indigo, a slave trade product, making it a colour of exploitation as well as beauty: I have looked at the evidence of Turner’s palette at the Tate, for the new pigments, at the turning point from a predominantly Colonial and alchemical to an industrial and scientifically based society. Always looking in these points of change for relevant echoes of our current flux. The form my work takes is abstract spaces, spaces to fall into to get lost and to remember. I owe a debt to twentieth Century artists for the freedom to play in these colour fields, to Rothko and Frankenthaler, to Kandinsky, to Sonia Delaunay and breakthroughs with colour as substance. But also to the unnamed Church painters of the Middle ages for whom pigments had their own symbolism. Technically the medieval dislike of palette mixing, which was a question of material interference, echoed for me in retaining the integrity of a pigment for the story which it holds. And to the developments of oil painting by the Northern Renaissance artists and into the Southern Renaissance, and the technical traditions of glazing which allow me to layer and lends me understanding of paint as a suspension of pigments which can be layered like strata. My understanding and expression come through the exploration of these colour traces of our thought and history and the way in which the material holds its own story. That we must remember our human story, how we got here, how this society came into being and what the costs were is a given. There is a sense in which these colours hold more than the formal record, they hold nuance and space for connection, for potential and extant symbolism and for the stories never told. Current and Coming Up 2019-20 Iasi Palace of Culture, Iasi Romania. Beyond Other Horizons: Contemporary paintings made in Britain and Romania, 1st- 31st March 2020. The exhibition will open on 3rd March 2020 with a British Council Symposium. Funded by the British Council, curated by Anna McNay, Peter Harrap and Florin Ungurianu Silson Contemporary Art Gallery, Mid-Winter Show Harrogate, Yorkshire, Mid Jan-April 2020 Makers and Craftsmen Project, curated interior by Bergman and Mar, Chiswick to winter 20 Kahn Gallery at the Affordable Art Fair, Hamburg 14-17 November 2019 Luminaire Arts Gallery, Beyond Abstracts, 7 Denbigh St London SW1V 2HF Nov-Dec 2019 Recent Competitions and Juried Shows 2019 Makers and Craftsmen, Curated by Bergman and Mar, 2018 The Black Swan Open selected by Johnny Messum, of Messums Wiltshire, Michael Eaves of Glastonbury Festival, Steve Burden Artist, Debbie Hilliyard of Hauser and Wirth, Sue Conrad Artist 2018 Long listed for the Secret Art Prize selected by gallerist Eleni Duke 2017 Creekside Open- selected by Jordan Baseman senior tutor at The Royal college of Art Representation: Galleries Highgate Contemporary Art Gallery, Highgate High Street, London, N6 The Kahn Gallery, London exhibits globally at The Affordable Art Fair Luminaire Arts Gallery, Vauxhall, London SW1V 2HF Silson Contemporary Art Gallery, Harrogate Yorks Online Sales Platforms with Art Agencies Saatchiart Soon to be launched on EPORTA Artists Agents Cramer and Bell Luminaire Arts Artiq Artful Projects With Designers Elicyon: Chalk Project Bergman and Mar: The Makers Project Saatchiart: The Flora boutique Cruise Ship project And others through agents Collections: Held in private collections in the UK, Australia, USA, the Middle East and Japan Graduated with a degree in Fine Art and Education from Hatfield Polytechnic 1989, a Masters Degree in Development Studies from South Bank University1994 and studied traditional Chinese Sumi-e ink painting under Prof Ding in Jiangxi China 2015-7 Previous Exhibitions/Fairs The Other Art Fair, Brooklyn, New York Nov 2019 Corby Glenn Project, Exhibition at Willoughby Gallery, Corby Glenn Sept-Oct 2019 The Affordable Art Fair, Kahn Gallery, Battersea, London October 2019 Curious Duke Gallery, Mixed Show, Whitecross Street London EC1, June 2019 Open Studios, EFO Open Art Houses , Sutton Road Muswell Hill, London, 29-30 June 1-2Jul The Other Art Fair London, Truman Brewery March 2019 Curious Duke Gallery, Winter show London December-Jan 2018-19 The Black Swan Open PV 18 October exhib19 Oct 24 Nov Black Swan Arts, 2 Bridge Street, Frome BA11 1BB Roys People Art Fair, Oxo Tower Wharf, London, UK November 1-4 2018 The Other Art Fair Brooklyn, New York USA November 7-11 2018 SFSA Painting, No Format Gallery/ Deptford Does Art,Deptford London December 2018 Highgate Contemporary Art Gallery, Mixed Painting , Highgate High St, London 2018 The Other Art Fair London Victoria House London WC1 4-7 October 2018 Free Painters and Sculptors at the Muse Gallery October 2-7 269 Portobello Road, W11 1LR The Curious Duke Gallery Summer Exhibition: White Cross Street, London EC1Y2018 The Other Art Fair, Bristol, 26-29 July 2018 The London Open 2018 , ICI on digital display on screen at the Whitechapel Gallery June-September 2018 East Finchley Open Artist’s Houses June30-July1 and July7- 8 2018 Roy’s People Art Fair, Barge House Oxo Tower Wharf, 12-15 April 2018 Ideal Home Show- London, Why Not Art stand - digital display and catalogue 17.3-2.4.18 Trace Elements, Deptford Does Art Gallery, Deptford High St, London 8-28 Feb 2018 Private view 8.2.18 7-11 In conversation with Sarah Needham, Paul Anderson Morrow and Matthew Gould, hosted by Rosalind Davis 24.2.18 7pm Tower 42, Old Broad Street, London EC2N 1HQ . Jan - April2018 SFSA Painting Open 17, No Format Gallery, 7-18 December 2017 Roy's People Art Fair, Islington, London14-17th September 2017 Creekside Open 2017 selected by Jordan Baseman, APT Gallery May 2017 Art Fair Malaga, Palacio de Ferias y Congresses de Malaga, Malaga 2017: Exhibited digitally. Small Experiments in Colour, Queen's Wood Cafe, Highgate June 2017 The Talented Artist Fair, Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London E1 6QR (Whitechapel tube) 17/18/19 March 2017 The Thames: The ARTery of London, Curator: Angus Pryor, St Katharine Docks Dec2016 Sugar And Spice, Devon House, St Katherine Docks: Curator: Angus Pryor Aug- Sept2016 Both Ends Of Madness, Sassoon Gallery Folkestone. Curator: Angus Prior 22July 2016 Nautical Perspectives, St Katherine Docks, curated by Angus Pryor May 2016 Whenever I feel Blue I Start Breathing, Earl's Court Project Rooms, June -July 2016 Open Studios: Open Art Spaces, Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea June-July 2016 Open studios:Kensington and Fulham Open Art Spaces, Pocket Arts 2015 Place and Proximity, Austin Forum, Hammersmith, Pocket Arts 2015 Refuse Reuse, Kensington, Pocket Arts 2015 Microtopia, Kingsgate Workshops, West Hampstead 2014 Microtopia, Kingsgate Workshops, West Hampstead 2013 Community Art Projects and Interactive Events Interactive Events / Community Arts Willoughby Gallery Project:Oral history collecting, local research, children’s workshop, interactive gallery in the Solo show 2019 In conversation with Rosalind Davis: Rosalind Davis interview at Trace Elements 2017 Both Ends of Madness Symposium, Thursday 21st July 6-8pm Sassoon Gallery Folkestone 2016 |
Photographs taken by Dani Tagen
Telephone02084445173
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sarahneedham@artfromlondonmarkets.com
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