by Sophie Woodrow
Sophie was drawn to working with clay from an early age. Born in Bristol in 1979, she graduated in 2001 from Falmouth College of Art with a BA in Studio Ceramics. Since then she has refined an intricate labour-intensive technique and a highly distinctive visual language. Each piece is hand-built, involving coiling, incising and impressing to create a delicately textured surface.
Her work has been informed by an interest in the Victorians as the first generation who chose to define nature in opposition to what is human. In a spirit of wild curiosity, tinged with fear, the Victorians idolised nature, ‘packaging’ it into highly romanticised, palatable works of art. Our modern-day understanding is very different, so that we now interpret much Victorian art as ‘unnatural’ or kitsch.
Pursuing an interest in natural history, Sophie has looked particularly at our continually shifting theories of evolution. Her work has been inspired by the enormous misinterpretations of geological evidence made by the Victorians, often with bluff self-confidence. She regards these misinterpretations as a game of Chinese whispers played over millennia.
Sophie’s sculptures are not visitors from other worlds, but the ‘might-have-beens’ of this world. She seeks to assemble creatures from the strange notions of what we define as ‘nature’ and of each other as people – as ‘other’.
Born Bristol 1979
Studied Falmouth College of Art BA Hons. Studio Ceramics
2011 September 25th- 28th, Origin, Spittalfields Market, London
2011 October Affordable Art Gallery, Liberty Gallery, London
2011 December Bluecoat Gallery, showcase, Liverpool
2011 Brewery Arts, Close to Nature, Cirencester
2011 Palace Art Fair, London
2011 Affordable art Fair, Bristol
2011 Brighton Open Houses
2011 Aspex Gallery , solo display, Portsmouth
2011 Aberyswyth Art Centre, Wild Thing
2010 Djanogly Gallery, solo display, Nottingham
2010 Affordable Art Gallery, Liberty Gallery, Bristol & London
2010 Royal West Academy, Jamaica Street Artists, Bristol
2010 Joint Show Bluecoat Display Centre
2009 London Affordable Art Fair, Liberty Gallery
2009 The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair
2009 Solo Display Lakeside art centre Nottingham
2008 ‘Bristol Contemporary Open’ Paintworks Bristol
2008 ‘Edgecentrics’ The Williamson tunnels Liverpool
2007 ‘Wanderkammer’ Blue Coat Display Centre Liverpool
2006 ‘Her Private Theatre’ A1 Studios Shefffield
2004 ‘Genius’ Coppola Sheffield
2004 ‘What’s New’ Coppola Sheffied
2003 Winter show Hotwells Gallery Bristol
2003 ‘Retox’ Contemporary Art Festival Bristol
2002 Winter Show Market Mews Cornwall
2002 ‘ Ceramica’ Contemporary Ceramics Festival Cornwall
2001 Truro Museum Summer Open Cornwall
2001 New Designers London