Sophie Dickens - Sculpture

Sophie Dickens - Sculpture

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	Sophie Dickens Working Practice Aided by a meticulous study of anatomy, learnt in actual clinical dissections (for artists) and drawing classes, Sophie constructs armatures in welding metal rods together like lyrical skeletal drawings on which she begins to attach or layer specifically worked pieces of wood cut on a band saw from oak panels. Using a fluid dynamic in understanding the nature of convex and concave forms she creates a muscular movement akin to the classic Eadweard Muybridge studies that have influenced her, ultimately bringing all the segments together and creating a cohesive kinematical feel of bone, muscle and sinew. She makes what can be very complex achievements seem effortless with a natural ability that gives a life and character to her work. Simon Levy Sculptor and Painter Resident in England and Mexico Read the interview conducted by Caroline Lazar on the subject of Mythology by clicking the arrow Curriculum Vitae

	1984 - 1987 1989 - 1991 1991	Courtauld Institute, University of London Sir John Cass School of Art, London Department of Anatomy, University College, London
	Exhibitions
	2001 2003 2004 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018	McHardy Sculpture Company, London Vertigo Gallery, London McHardy Sculpture Company, London Stella von Boch, London Stella von Boch, Germany and London Sladmore Gallery, London Galerie Cymaise, Paris Stella von Boch, Wiesbaden Sladmore Gallery, London Millinery Works, London Southwark Cathedral Sladmore Gallery, London Ashmolean Museum, Oxford - group show Victoria Gallery, Bath - group show Gloucester Cathedral Graham, New York "Landscape" - group show Millinery Works, London Big Deal - group show Cavendish Square underground car park Chinese Open - group show Chinatown, London Sladmore Gallery, London De Re Gallery, Los Angeles Buro Four, National Theatre Be Mine, Sladmore Contemporary Personal Structures, Palazzo Mora, Venice Biennale - large group show Tre Posti – three installations in Pieve di Teco, Liguria 7 Wolves, Galleria Cristiani, Turin Sladmore Contemporary
	Prizes
	1991 2007	Owen-Rowley Scupture Prize The Sculpture Prize at theVictoria and Albert Museum - Inspired by the Human Form - The Founders’ Award
	Commissions
	2004 2005 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018	The Way the Land Lies - installation at Burghley House Leapfrog - Cumberland Hotel, London Adam and Eve - The Old Zoo, Lancashire Stag - Brockhall Village, Lancashire Walking the Dog - RBS Centenary Exhibition, Leicester Botanic Gardens “If you believe in me...” . Unicorn Children’s Theatre, London Mother and Child - John Lewis, Cambridge Turning Man - Worshipful Company of Founders Diana and Hounds - private client Francis Cator Memorial weather vane, Norfolk Minotaur – private client, San Francisco Cartwheel – Woburn Abbey 2012 Olympic judo sculpture – ArtattheEdge Large Cartwheel – Moscow Bird I – Panasonic, London Football, Soccer, Sprint, Ice Hockey - NBC Sports News, Connecticut, USA Bull - Heston Blumenthall Diver - Connaught Hotel, London Minotaur Medal, British Museum, London Variable Landscape - collection Sir Michael Hopkins Monkey installation - Sladmore Contemporary Chinese Open – group show, Chinatown, London Buro Four Thirty-for –Thirty, sculpture inspired by NT project Be Mine! – Valentine’s exhibition, Sladmore Contemporary Hilton Hotel, Faro, Portugal Grand Palace Hotel, Manchester Dive - Los Angeles Pool Boys – Frankfurt Satyrs with amphora – New York Diver - Benyon Memorial Garden, Royal Berkshire Hospital
	Publications
	2015	The Space between Us - book of drawings
	Comments on Adam and Eve Sophie Dickens's Adam and Eve is a masterly and extremely moving exercise in balance. The manner in which she has sculpted two monumental figures, one female, one male, in a scene of entire togetherness, allows her to explore a range of powerful and simultaneous fleeting emotions. She has created a compelling image of vulnerability and despair, which nonetheless is leavened by Adam's protective tenderness and by Eve's gesture in which shame is blended with an optimistic hint at her future maternity. The mood shifts as the viewer moves round the piece. At one moment we are overwhelmed by the weighty sorrow of the event; the next we are struck by the way in which the figures seem to leave the ground, like souls rising to heaven. This extraordinary combination of lightness and weight works through the composition, but above all through the sculptural surface. Dickens employs both jutting relief and airy voids to establish the anatomy of her figures and, still more importantly, their sacred and very human predicament. Luke Syson Curator of 15th Italian Paintings, National Gallery, London This graceful, even tender, two-figure group achieves something very unusual in the recent history of religious art by making us feel again the universal and personal meanings of human disaster. As they walk away, Adam's body inclines in grief but also shields the inconsolable Eve as she clutches at her breasts, beside herself with loss and remorse. The force of the sculptor's rendering is unsentimental but the beholder feels they should step back again, avoiding to intrude on such an intimate calamity. Dr Alison Wright Senior Lecturer, University College, London




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