ABOUT / AMDANAF

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ARTIST STATEMENT

My work is grounded in the practices of painting and drawing, touching on the themes of pictorial space, technological mediation, and observation. Photographs, surveillance camera images, touchscreen displays, and digital scans have each formed a starting point for artworks. Working with this material offers me a way to explore the visual qualities of familiar images and media, as well as their integration into everyday life. I paint and draw in a way that evokes aspects of other media. Choosing to depict natural and human forms, I am interested in the interplay between the natural world and technology; between direct and mediated experience, and between hand-making and mechanical production. The relationship between two-dimensional and three-dimensional form is a recurrent feature of my work, expressed as the illusion of depth depicted on a flat surface, and through paintings and drawings that are partly sculptural. Areas of blank canvas, the verso side of paper, and the space between an artwork and its viewer is given as much consideration as drawn or painted elements.

BIOGRAPHY

Hannah grew up in the village of Crai in Wales and studied at Swansea College of Art, choosing to specialise in painting and drawing. After graduating in 2008 she briefly worked as a painting studio assistant before returning to Swansea to live and work, later gaining MA and MPhil qualifications. Her artwork was awarded inaugural Beep Painting Prize in 2012 and was shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2014. Recently, her work was included in the exhibitions John Ruskin: The Power of Seeing, Two Temple Place, London (2019), John Ruskin: Art & Wonder, Millennium Gallery, Sheffield (2019) and the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2020; 2023).

CV

Born 1985, Swansea, UK / Ganwyd 1985, Abertawe, UK
hannahdowning@mailbox.org

Education / Addysg
2022 MPhil, UWTSD. Thesis: Interfacing the Screenic and Pained Surface
2015 MA: Contemporary Dialogues, Swansea College of Art
2008 BA Fine Art: Painting and Drawing, Swansea Metropolitan University

Solo exhibitions / Arddangosfeydd Unigol
2015 Site, Light and Survey, National Botanic Garden of Wales, Llanarthne, Wales
2013 Panorama, The Last Gallery, Llangadog, Wales

Group exhibitions / Arddangosfeydd Grwp
2024 Swansea Open 2024, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea [ongoing, 03/02/24 – 19/05/24]
2023/24 Agored 2023, Galeri Caernarfon, Gwynedd
2023 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2023 Swansea Open 2023, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
2021 International Women’s Day Auction 2021, Art on a Postcard, Online
2020 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2020 Winter Art Wall, Cardiff M.A.D.E., Cardiff
2019 50fifty, Swansea College of Art and Elysium Gallery, Swansea
2019 John Ruskin: Art & Wonder, Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
2019 John Ruskin: The Power of Seeing, Two Temple Place, London
2018 Everything Now, Elysium Gallery, Swansea
2018 We’re From Further South Than You, Undegun, Wrexham
2016 In the Making: Ruskin, Creativity and Craftsmanship, Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
2016 Reimagined Spaces, Tŷ Hywel at the National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff
2015 MA Show, Swansea College of Art, Swansea
2014 Jerwood Drawing Prize, London and touring
2014 Oriel Davies Open, Oriel Davies, Newtown, Wales
2013 Affordable Art Fair, Bristol
2013 Young Masters, The Curious Duke Gallery, London
2012 The Retreat, Hoxton Hotel, London
2012 Kyffin Williams Drawing Prize, Oriel Ynys Môn, Anglesey
2012 Affordable Art Fair, Battersea, London
2012 BEEP 2012: Through Tomorrow's Eyes, Elysium Gallery, Swansea
2012 Art in Flux, The Curious Duke Gallery, London
2012 Works on Loan, Celtic Manor, Newport, Wales
2011 No No, I Hardly Ever Miss a Show, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw
2011 Curatorial Contrasts II, Bay Arts, Cardiff
2010 DIY, organised by Surface Arts, Exeter
2009 Ground:, Oriel Wrecsam, Wrexham
2009 A Group Show, The Tithe Barn, Brecon, Wales
2009 A Thing About Machines, The Herbert, Coventry
2009 Ground: Hannah Downing and Alex Duncan, Oriel Lliw, Pontardawe, Wales
2008 National Eisteddfod of Wales: Cardiff & District 2008, Y Lle Celf, Cardiff
2008 Mission Open 08, Mission Gallery, Swansea

Collections / Casgliadau
Glynn Vivian Art Gallery Contemporary Handling Collection, Swansea
Museums Sheffield Collection, Sheffield
Works held in private collections in the UK and Europe

Awards, grants, commissions / Gwobrau, Grantiau a Chomisiynau
2017 Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarship, supported by the European Social Fund
2015 Craftsmanship Commission, Museums Sheffield supported by the Guild of St. George
2014 Access to Masters Scholarship, supported by the European Social Fund
2014 Oriel Davies Open: People’s choice prize
2012 Beep Painting Prize: Main prize winner

Residencies / Preswylfeydd
2013 Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
2011 Aberystwyth Arts Centre, supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
2011 Invigilator Plus, Wales at Venice, Wales Arts International

Publications / Cyhoeddiadau
Downing, H., 2020. Fingertips and Touchscreens. Flusser Studies, [e-journal] 29:1

Educational Work
2021 Artist talk to BA Fine Art students, UWTSD
2018 Adjudicator for 2D Creative competition category, Eisteddfod yr Urdd
2016-7 Tutor, Art After Dark: Introduction to Painting at Swansea College of Art
2016 Tutor, Creative Practice, Wuhan Summer School at Swansea College of Art
2013 Drawing Workshop, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
2013 Artist in Residence talk (part of Art's Birthday event), Glynn Vivian Art Gallery at YMCA Swansea
2011 Artist in Residence talk, Aberystwyth Arts Centre
2008-14 ‘Y Mor’, ‘Y Tywydd’ & ‘Y Goedwig’ (mural collaborations with primary schools)

Pdf CV