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Each figure that Sophie makes begins with a small porcelain thumb pot, that is coiled and pinched, as it grows upwards the clay is incised, imprinted and modelled to create a richly textured surface. This is finished with eyes, two black holes that show us the dark space inside. She describes her figures as “psychological portraits”, inviting us to meditate on the relationship between our inner and outward reality, she explains, “I think of bodies as permeable and unstable, as impressions and sensations flow around and through us. My figures are psychological portraits, of the people we might be, to ourselves, for a moment, or from another angle. I am interested particularly in the impression that landscape leaves on us, and the contested boundaries between the landscape of the earth, and the landscape of our imagination.” Through Sophie’s work we are given a moment to reflect on our personhood as individuals, and the place we hold within the many social and natural systems that sustain us.

Sophie Woodrow   Biography/CV

Born Bristol 1979
1997-1998 Foundation Art and Design U.W.E. Bristol
1998-2001 BA Hons Studio Ceramics Falmouth College of Arts

Selected Exhibitions

2006 “Her Private Theatre” A1 Studios Sheffield
2007 “Wanderkammer” Bluecoat Display Center
2009 Showcase Lakeside Arts Centre Nottingham
2010 “Birds of a Feather” joint show Bluecoat Display Center
2010 Showcase Manchester Corn Exchange
2011 “Inside Out” Royal West Academy
2011 “Wild thing” Aberystwyth Arts Center
2011 “Close to Nature” New Brewery Arts Center Cirencester
2011 Showcase Axis Arts Center Portsmouth
2012 Origin Crafts Council London
2012 “When I Woke” Llantarnam Grange Cymbran
2013 Showcase Aberystwyth Arts Center Aberystwyth
2013 “Make Believe Make!” Portsmouth City Museum Portsmouth
2013 Showcase Yorkshire Sculpture Park Derbyshire
2017 Group Show Thierry Boutemy Atelier Brussels
2018 “Myth, Material and Metamorphosis” Messums Wiltshire
2021 “Beyond the Vessel ” Messums Wiltshire

Collections

Aberystwyth University Ceramic Collections
National Museum Cardiff

Publications

Sculpting and Handbuilding Claire Loder Bloomsbury
Porcelain Vivienne Foley Bloomsbury

Articles

Ceramic Review Profile April/March 2022