PAST EXHIBITIONS
SOLO & DUO EXHIBITIONS
Solo The Twenty Twenty Gallery, Ludlow 2022
Solo The New Craftsman Gallery, St Ives 2021
Solo Chippenham Museum, May 2019
Solo Ceramic, The Soden Collection, Shrewsbury July 2018
Solo Ceramic, Bircham Gallery, Norfolk October 2017
Drawn To Make, Solo Show New Craftsman Gallery St Ives April 2017
Foreign Lands, Denise Yapp Contemporary, Monmouth, June 2016
Hallowed Ground, David Simon Contemporary, Bath, November 2015
Kriki-Ritual, Rize Gallery, Amsterdam, March 2015
Romancing Nature, Denise Yapp Contemporary Art, September 2014
Hardy House Gallery, Box, December, 2013
Solo Show, New Craftsman Gallery, St Ives, May-July, 2013
Quest Gallery, Bath, December 2012
Members Solo Show, Devon Guild, Bovey Tracey, May 2012
Solo Ceramic, Cartshed Gallery, Shaftesbury, Sept 2011
Landscape, Corsham Court Gallery (BSU), March 2010
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2023
Cavaliero Finn, ‘Winter’ Cromwell Place, November
Vanner Gallery, ‘Vessels’ Curated by Jacquiline Creswell November
Cavaliero Finn, ‘Crafting a Difference’, October
Twenty Twenty Gallery, ‘Sculpture in the Garden’ Wildgoose September
Cavaliero Finn ‘Elemental Lines’ Aldeburgh, June
Chippenham Museum ‘Contemporary Print’ January
2022
Artist in Residence, Corsham Court Campus, Bath Spa University, September
Grove Collective London, Group Show January
Twenty Twenty Gallery Ludlow, Solo Exhibition ‘Boundaries’ March
The Vanner Gallery, Salisbury, ‘No Woman is An Island’ Group show April
The Bircham Gallery, Holt, September
RWA 169th Open Exhibition, Bristol, October
2021
Artist in Residence, Corsham Court Campus, Bath Spa University, September
Direktorenhaus Berlin, ‘Radical Craft 3’ group show
The New Craftsman Gallery, St Ives Solo exhibition ‘Glimpse’ October
Chipppenham Museum print collection
2020
Artist in Residence, Corsham Court Campus, Bath Spa University, September
Twenty Twenty Gallery, Instinct & Abstraction, August
Cavin Morris Gallery New York, Sacral Landscapes, August
The Albany Gallery, Cardiff, with Chris Prout, August
Chippenham Museum, Modern & Contemporary Art Collection, July
The New Craftsmen Mayfair, March
Bath School of Art and Design Alumni Exhibition, February
2019
Bath Society of Artists Open, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath May
Rough Stuff, Cavin Morris Gallery, New York, May
This Womans Work, Swindon Museum & Art Gallery, January
Gifted, Swindon Museum & Art Gallery, Swindon, January
London Art Fair with Askew Art London, January
2018
Bils & Rye, Animal, November
Blackmore Gallery, Past,Present & Future November
Soden Collection, Winter Exhibition November
Awarded First Prize Ceramic Art/Applied ceramics category Baby Forest
London Art Fair with Askew Art, London January
'Surface' Heritage Courtyard Gallery, Wells, March
2017
Pound Arts Open Exhibition, Corsham, November 'First Prize Award'
RWA 165th Open Exhibition, Bristol, September
This Is What Clay Can do:A Meditation, Cavin-Morris Gallery New York, June
Bath Society of Artists Summer Exhibition, Bath, May
'Ground' , Andelli Art, Wells, March
London Art Fair, with Edgar Modern January
2016
Edgar Modern, Bath, Carl Melegari exhibition October
Affordable Art Fair Battersea,London, REN Fine Art October
RWA 164 Open Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, October
'From Where I'm Standing' Swindon Museum & Art Gallery, September
'Earth Skin' Cavin Morris Gallery, New York, September
Denise Yapp Contemporary, Monmouth, June
Adah Rose Gallery, Kensington MD, June
Highgate Gallery, London, June
Twenty Twenty Gallery, Much Wenlock, May
Suspended Fruit, C4RD Centre for Recent Drawing, London, March
Women in Art, Wall Projects 1, Montrose, Scotland, March
McAllister Thomas Fine Art, Godalming, Surrey, March
Inside Out - Bursary Exhibition, Pound Arts Centre, Corsham, Wiltshire, January
2015
Flux Exhibition, Grays Art Gallery, RCA Galleries, London, December
Sculpture For Furniture with Michael Pennie, Salisbury Arts Centre, September
Enflamed, Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York,, June
Bath Society of Artists 110th Exhibition, June
Land Tracks, Wine Street Gallery, June
Still Life & Ceramics, Robert Fogell Gallery, June
Denise Yapp Contemporary, May
Flux Exhibition, Grays Art Gallery, London, February
Small Works, David Simon Contemporary, Bath, January
2014
Rize Art Gallery, Amsterdam, November
Contemporary Sculpture, Medici Gallery, London, November
Elementals: Women Sculpting Animism, Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York, November
Field Of Vision, David Simon Contemporary, Bath, October
Summer Exhibition, Medici Gallery, London, July
SWA Mall Gallery, London, June
Cornwall's Influence on the Modernist Tradition, Medici Gallery, London, April
Praisesongs for the Numinous: New Sculpture, Cavin-Morris Gallery New York, March
Affordable Art Fair, Battersea, March
2013
Wine Street Gallery, November
Panzer Trotman Fine Art, November
Denise Yapp Contemporary, October
Art In Clay, Hatfield House, July
Hospitality, Bath Abbey, June
The Russell Cotes Museum with The Arthouse Gallery, June
Affordable Art Fair, Hampstead, with Bowlish Contemporary Gallery, June
Affordable Art Fair, Battersea, with Bowlish Contemporary Gallery, March
2012
Autumn Show, Bircham Gallery Norfolk,, October
Gallery 28, Cork Street, with the Katharine House Gallery, October
Threadneedle Prize Exhibition, Mall Galleries, September
Art In Clay, Hatfield House, August
Hilton Fine Art, Bath, June
2011
Open Show, Pound Arts Centre, Corsham, October
Ceramics- Nine Artists at Corsham, Corsham Court Gallery (BSU), September
Art in Clay, Hatfield House, July
Open Show, Black Swan, Frome, May
Group Show with Calne Artists, Bowood House, Wiltshire, April
2010
Gallery 27, Cork Street, with Katharine House Gallery and Askew Art, December
Open Show, Pound Arts Centre, Corsham, October
Group Show, Calne Arts Festival, October
Katharine House Gallery, Marlborough, September
Bradford On Avon Arts Festival - Sculpture Garden 'Tribe', September
Central Gallery Malvern, Bertram Enterprises, May
2009
Milsom Place, Bath with Mirka Golden-Hann (BSU), November
MA Degree Show (BSU) Sion Hill Bath, September
Curator of Swindon Museum & Art Gallery: Sophie Cummings 2016
"Sarah Purvey’ creates powerful, sculptural ceramics which combine monumentality and subtlety to unique effect. Her explorations of form, tonality and the possibilities of clay resolve themselves in large, engaging and instinctive vessels.
Swindon Museum and Art Gallery is delighted to have recently acquired ‘Witnessed’ to join our permanent collection of modern British Art.”
Ashley Thorpe Author Contemporary British Studio Pottery- Forms of Expression, Published 2023 The Crowood Press
"There is a raw power to the work of Sarah Purvey; a directness. Her ceramic vessels and paintings on canvas or paper are not separate elements that are 'worked on' intellectually; rather, they are immediate expressions of her perceptions and feelings in a moment. In the same way that the wall of a vessel creates both an interior and exterior space, so her work represents a meeting point between the exterior perspective of the spectator and the interior emotions of the artist. She and her work are thus totally conjoined: each piece stands as a diary of unfiltered feelings, produced through a stream of consciousness."
Foreword Boundaries Exhibition Twenty Twenty Gallery 2020
Dr Ian Massey
Purvey works both in clay and on paper, an inter-related body of work in which drawing is the unifying factor. Throughout, the process is instinctive and organic. In clay there are vessels and deeply encrusted relief pieces, the latter roughly circular or square. The vessels are not functional but are highly distinctive sculptural objects, their surfaces earthy and tactile.
The artist strives to work meditatively and at speed, listening, feeling, responding, finding herself lost in the making, each pinch of clay equivalent to a single heartbeat. As she progresses, words and conversations surface from an internal dialogue, as though from the intermittent babble of a crossed telephone line, often prompting her to pause in order to note them down. One is struck by the idea that these fragments of language might effectively become written into the work, as inflections within the overall design. For one senses - and this becomes apparent in conversation with the artist - that there is a private language, of thought and meaning, underlying the work in its entirety.”
BIOGRAPHY
Sarah Purvey has had solo exhibitions in St Ives, Bath and Amsterdam and has exhibited widely in group exhibitions including New York, Berlin and London. Her work is represented by galleries both nationally and internationally.
Purvey completed an MA in ceramics at Bath Spa University in 2009 and holds the position of Artist in Residence at the Corsham Court Campus in Wiltshire.
Purvey holds the voluntary role of Project Coordinator for Chippenham Museum Modern and Contemporary Art Collection which began in 2019, ongoing.
STATEMENT
“ I work predominantly in clay and on paper and explore an intensely physical relationship with drawing throughout my practice.”
QUALIFICATIONS
2009 MA Ceramics, Bath School of Art and Design, Bath Spa University
1991 BA Ceramics, Bath College of Higher Education
1988 BTec Ceramics, Plymouth College of Art and Design
COLLECTIONS
2023 BSAD Corsham Court-Bath Spa University-Drawing
2021 Pallant House Gallery, Chichester- Ceramic
2021 Chippenham Museum - Hand finished print
2020 Chippenham Museum - Drawing
2019 Swindon Museum and Art Gallery - Drawing
2019 Chippenham Museum - Ceramic
2017 BSAD Corsham Court, Bath Spa University-Ceramic
2016 Swindon Museum and Art Gallery-Ceramic
2012 BSAD Corsham Court, Bath Spa University-Ceramic
Michael Portillo private collection
Private collections in USA, Japan & Europe
AWARDS
2018 First Prize Award, Baby Forest
2017 First Prize Award, Corsham Open Exhibition
REPRESENTATION
International
Cavin-Morris Gallery, Chelsea, New York
Adah Rose Gallery, Washington
Direktorenhaus, Berlin
United Kingdom
London
Cavaliero Finn, London
Cornwall
The New Craftsman Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall
Cheshire
Blackmore Gallery, 29 The Cross, Lymm, Cheshire
Shropshire
The Twenty Twenty Gallery, Shropshire
Talks
2018
Bath School of Art & Design MA Open Day- April
2017
Bath School of Art & Design MA Open Day -March
Corsham Arts Society, Pound Arts- February
2016
Swindon Museum & Art Gallery with Alun Graves-October
NADFAS Ceramic Enrichment Programme, Salisbury-April
2015
Salisbury Art Centre with Michael Pennie-September