The Spectator, 2012, Perspex, wood, paint, material, 170 x 70 x 140cm
2nd November – 1st December 2012
For her first exhibition with Poppy Sebire Amy Stephens presents a new series of minimalist sculptural configurations that play with colour, surface and form.
Forms moving through space have an inherent relationship to drawing and this is how Stephens understands sculpture – as having a fundamentally spatial conception. Tall assemblages transform the gallery and engage directly with the architecture – their dimensions are in part determined with the gallery drawings to hand. The scale and height of Stephens’ configurations feels all the more tense for their self-supporting structures that teeter on the edge of collapse.
A very striking element in Stephens work lies in the materials and methods of production; her bold and confident aesthetic makes subtle reference to process. Angled lines of flocked wood, both sculptural and structural, produce an arresting visual impression as they cut through space. Great sheets of machined Perspex are propped up by neatly sawn rectangular columns of knotted oak; setting up a tension and tactility around the collision of man-made with natural materials.
Amy Stephens was born in London in 1981. She holds an MA from Chelsea College of Art and Design. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Restless Nature’, Oonagh Young Gallery, Dublin, Ireland (2011); ‘This Urban Silence’, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland (2011); ‘The Rise of the Wapiti’, Other Gallery, Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada (2010); Recent group exhibitions include ‘Dividing Line’, High House with Sumarria Lunn Gallery, London (2012); ‘Piece of Paper’, Madder139, London (2011); ‘Line’, Poppy Sebire, London (2011); ‘No Soul For Sale – A Festival of Independents’, Tate Modern, London (2010); ‘Meet Pamela’, John Jones Project Space, London (2009); ‘195 Miles’, Project Space Leeds in collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2008). In 2011 she completed a four- month Artists’ Residency at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin and in 2010 she was an artist in residence at the Banff Centre, Canada. She has work in several public and private collections, including the Zabludowicz Collection. The artist lives and works in London.
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www.poppysebire.com
