ABOUT

Sarah Spencer graduated from Loughborough University School of Art and Design in 1999 with 1st class Hons degree in Sculpture. Since then she has worked as an exhibition co-ordinator for Q Arts, Derby, Art and Design Co-ordinator and fine Art Tutor for Aberystwyth University. She has won The Henry Moore and Royal College of Art Figuring Sculpture Award and has an MA from Aberystwyth School of Art. Sarah is represented by New Blood Art.


PERSONAL DETAILS

Sarah Spencer (b. 1972, UK)


EDUCATION

Aberystwyth School of Art, MA Painting, 2018
Essay: Branding in the Artworld: A Postmodern Phenomenon

Loughborough University, BA(Hons) 1st Class Fine Art Sculpture, 1999


EXHIBITIONS

Oct 2018 Graduate Show, Set House Arts

Sep 2018 MA Show 2, Aberystwyth School of Art

June 2018 Nascent Inclinations, Ty Pawb, Wrexham

May 2018 MA Show 1, Aberystwyth School of Art

Oct 2017 Galeri Caernarfon Open

2017 shortlisted for Anthology, Charlie Smith, London

2017 MoMA Wales Open, Machynlleth (highly commended)

2015 MOMA Wales Open, Macynlleth

2015 Powerhouse Open, Llandysul

2003 Hathern Open Gardens Sculpture Trail

2003 Identity - Generator Gallery, Loughborough

2002 Cells - Charnwood Museum, Loughborough

2002 South Croxton Arts Festival

2002 Reveal - Charnwood Museum, Loughborough

2002 Deceive - Generator Gallery, Loughborough

2002 Hard Lines Soft Shapes - Charnwood Museum, Loughborough

2000 Looking for Mandy’s Place - (based on a poem by Brian Lewis) Dean Clough, Halifax

1999 The Human Condition - New Walk Museum and Gallery, Leicester

1998 Lift Off - Loughborough Students Union

1998 Figuring Sculpture - Royal College of Art, London

1998 Reverse Duchamp? - Loughborough College of Art


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Laffan, Andy (Compiler), The State of Art: Representational and Abstract, Barehill Publishers 2014, pages 32,32


TEACHING

2012-present, Art Tutor, Aberystwyth University

2001, Sculpture Tutor, Open College of the Arts


AWARDS AND GRANTS

Henry Moore Foundation Figuring Sculpture Award

Arts in The Community Award


COMMISIONS

Allium - Charnwood Borough Council

Trilobite - Barrow-Upon-Soar Parish Council

Jurasic Amber - Barrow-Upon-Soar Parish Council

Trilobite II - Quorn Parish Council


ARTIST STATEMENT

One of the main qualities I’d like my art to do is to reveal itself slowly, so you feel like you are never finished at looking at it, giving you enough information to draw you in but nothing that is too leading.

Memories fade and blur, they are distorted by various factors; emotions, imagination and time, it is this that I want to capture in my paintings, the passing of time in relation to the human condition of emotions.

Earthy tones of layered glazes are contrasted with high chroma areas of painterly applications using acrylics, oils, and spray paint. Traditional painting methods are blended with a process of adding and subtracting, masking and revealing. Boundaries blur between past/present, urban/rural, internal/external to produce a timeless ambiguity.

I draw inspiration from old masters, cinema, derelict spaces, emotion and memories.  I have a large collection of images collected from my own photographs, books and from online. I find they are helpful with various aspects from the process of painting to a spark of an idea. The painting process is always one of discovery, the idea I have at the beginning will change along the route of its creation. I find it fascinating the twists and turns that a painting will go through which are dependent on process and emotions whilst painting. It is this dialogue that I want to continue to the viewer; to be able to transport the viewer and to hold their attention long enough for some reflection to occur and a curiosity to look further.