Gill Newton
Inspired by an inner reality I make impermanent, balanced sculptural assemblages and carbon drawings, often grouped in relational installations
I explore and respond to my surroundings instinctively, making drawings, noticing and gathering organic and mundane objects or discarded materials on my way; moss, twig, brick fragment, an exhibition postcard, paintbrushes, old tools and carbon paper, or wood from pallets, all chosen for their accessibility or visual and tactile qualities
Touch, balance, chance and play are crucial to my process as these objects and materials are combined by hand with low tech methods, into sculptural assemblages and drawings made in multiples
A significant aspect of my practice is the continual recycling of objects and materials, they are frequently re purposed, adapted and painted. Assemblages are taken apart and the elements reconfigured into new ones with drawings reviewed, layered and recombined differently or occasionally burnished onto assemblages. With all the elements changing as they will with repeated use
And through my works I seek to share an appreciation of the humdrum and disregarded
projects
I am a founding member of Drawing Connections (2015 - 2019) a group of artists worked collaboratively to extend the medium of drawing. We exhibited in the UK and Internationally
professional development and residencies
2012 Contributing speaker ‘Drawing Lines’ Pecha Kucha No 7, The Hepworth, Wakefield
2008 Selected for Artists Access to Art Colleges Scheme University of Portsmouth
education
2012 MA Fine Art,Wimbledon College of Art, University of the Arts, London
1991 BA (Hon's) 3 D Design (Metals) West Surrey College of Art & Design, Farnham
solo exhibitions (edited list)
2006 Craft & Design Showcase, Oriel Davis Gallery, Newtown, Powys
2006 First Sight Showcase, Hove Museum & Art Gallery, Hove
2004 Jewellery Showcase, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2002 Jewellery Showcase, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
group exhibitions (edited list)
2021 ‘A Strange Lightness’, duo show, Yellow Edge Gallery, Gosport, Hampshire
2019 ‘Summer Open’, Yellow Edge Gallery, Gosport, Hampshire
2019 Drawing Connections|Murmuration’ (selected) hARTslane, London
2019 'Time Memory and Transience' St Georges Church, Esher, Surrey
2019 'Go Figure’, (selected) Summer Open, Guggleton Farm Arts, Stalbridge, Dorset
2018 Bath Open Art Prize, (selected) 44AD Fringe Arts Bath
2018 Drawing Connections, Studio 93a, Artist Open Houses, Brighton
2017 'Between a Rock and a Divine Space', duo show, no format Gallery, London
2016 'A Many Sided Thing: Drawing Connections, A-Side B-Side Gallery, London
2016 'On Our Way to Where: Drawing Connections, hARTslane Project Space, London
2015 ''Make/Create', (selected) The Crypt Gallery, London
2015 'Line and Light' duo show, The Wall's Cafe Gallery, Husk, London
2013 ‘Motivation Meaning and Making’, Craft Central, Clerkenwell, London
2013 ‘Perspective’, (selected) Farnham Library Gardens, Farnham, Surrey
2012 Postgraduate Summer Show, Wimbledon College of Art, Wimbledon
2012 ‘Wunderkammer’, The Nunnery, London
2011 ‘Futura Bold/ Futura Oblique’, The Nunnery, London
2009 ‘Where we were before’ AA2A 10th Anniversary CCi Space, University of Portsmouth,
2008 ‘Inspired by the banks of London’, ACJ London Group, A&D Gallery, London
2007 Craft Showcase, (selected) aspex (gallery), Vulcan Building, Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth
2006 ‘Heirlooms’, ACJ Membership Exhibition, St Botolphs Church, Aldgate, London
2005 ‘Cracker’, (selected) Kath Libbert, Salts Mill, Saltaire, Bradford
2004 ‘Jewellery Unlimited’, (selected) Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol
publications
2007 Jewellers: The Directory, A&C Black Publishers
2006 Heirlooms, an exhibition of rings, Catalogue, Edited byProf. G Votalato & E Callinicos
2004 Jewellery Unlimited, Catalogue, Edited by Holly Belsher & Jessica Turrell
background
I set aside designing and making jewellery in 2008 to explore the motivations behind my craft practice and gained my MA Fine Art in 2012. Alongside my craft practice I worked as a freelance consultant and subject specialist. I also taught visual arts subjects, including professional development, within adult, further and higher education settings until 2016. I now focus on making drawings and sculptural assemblages, mainly from materials I find.
