Helen Barff
My sculptural practice is rooted in communication with people across a wide demographic, transforming these exchanges into tactile form. I often explore autobiographical memories embedded in personal belongings, particularly clothing, using them as vessels for lived experience and emotional residue. My experience of motherhood is a recurring focus, informing both material choices and conceptual direction. I am interested in how materials are shaped by temporality, and how memory becomes embedded in matter over time. A sensitivity to touch is central to my practice, guiding both process and outcome. I work with found objects and materials such as felt, plaster, concrete, rubber or photographic surfaces, using processes such as wrapping, casting or other interventions in space and surface.
Education:
MA - distinction, Drawing, Camberwell College, London, 2004
BA (hons) - first class, Fine Art and Art History, Goldsmiths College, London, 1999
Solo Exhibitions:
The ground that gathers beneath my feet, St Giles Cripplegate, 2025
I Wrap My Fear Around Me Like A Blanket, Close Ltd, Somerset, 2022
Many and many a day like this, Stone Space, London, 2021
Memory of Clothes, Worthing Museum, February till June 19
BROOD, Bend in the River, Gainsborough, December 11
Residency Exhibition – Rabley Drawing Centre, June 09
Things from the Thames, Bearspace, SE8, November 05
New Works II, selected new graduate, Farnham Maltings, Surrey, November 99
Selected Group Exhibitions:
Deep Veins, Royal Society of Sculptors at Brompton Cemetery, 2026
London Sculpture Prize, Gunnersbury Park Museum, 2025
Blink and You'll miss it, Safe House, London - curator, 2025
Inside the Studio, AWITA / Brookfield, London, 2025
Sunny Side Up, Close Ltd, Somserset, 2025
Paperworks II, Royal West Academy, Bristol, 2024
Mirrors Fog Over When I Breath, Close Ltd at Centrespace, Bristol, 2024
Finding Family, The Foundling Museum, London, 2023
Feeling for Murmuration, APT Gallery, London 2020
The Faraway Nearby, Rabley Gallery, Wiltshire, March 2020
Auto//Fiction, Dyson Gallery, Royal College of Art, London, July 19
Surface, JGM Gallery, London, June 18
All the Names, Scrap Metal, Toronto, October 2017
Elephant, Paris College of Art, October 2017
Rising, St Johns Bethnal Green, October 2017
Jerwood Prize exhibition, Jerwood Space and UK tour, September 2017
Liberties, The Exchange, Penzance, October 2016
Traces and Remains: Inquiries into the Present, curated by Tatiana Cuevas Hospicio Cabañas (Guadalajara), Museo Amparo (Puebla) and Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso (Mexico City). Colección Isabel y Agustín Coppel, Mexico, 2015 - 16
Of the Sea, Chatham Dockyard, May 16
Bench, Tintype Gallery, London, January 16
All surface one moment, all depth the next, fourFOLD, Enclave, October 15
Hangers, Rabley Drawing Centre, Wiltshire, September 15
Liberties, Collyer Bristow Gallery, curated by Day + Gluckman, July 15
UnFOLD, fourFOLD, Enclave, London, June 15
All Things New, Man&Eve Projects, London, October 14
Contemporary Art Society North, Art in the Home, York, August 14
Matter and Memory, Alison Jacques Gallery, London, January 14
Open Cube, White Cube, Masons Yard, London, July till Sept 13
Regrouping, Bend in the River at the Usher Gallery, Lincoln, October 12
Undercurrent, Departure Foundation, London, June 12
Group show, Royal Standard, Liverpool, January 09
Group Show, Raising Ground, Bearspace, November 08
Group Show, Bend in the River, Gainsborough, Dec 07 - Jan 08
Demarco’s Festival, National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, August 07
Touring drawing show, bluetenweiss, venues around Germany, Summer 07
Driven, group show, Fieldgate Gallery, E1, July 07
Group Show, Bend in the River, Gainsborough, November 06
Group Show, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, July 06
Group Drawing Show, SourceArt, Illinois, USA, July 06
They Also Draw, Seven Seven Gallery, E8, April 06
Group Show, Alma Enterprises, E2, November 05
Demarco European Art Foundation Space, Edinburgh, August 05
Oriel Mostyn, Mostyn Open, Llandudno, March 05
Group show, Rabley Drawing Centre, Wiltshire, March 05
Xhibit, work selected from across the University of Arts London, W1, May 04
Goldsmiths graduates selected by Paul Hedge, Deptford X, July 99
Selected Publications:
My Body in My Hands, edited by Nick Grellier and Sam Lucas, 2024
Art Maze Magazine, full page feature, January 2017
Drawing in the Grey Zone by David Vanderburgh, SURFACE/ΕΠΙΦΑΝΕΙΑΕΠΙΦΑΝΕΙΑ : Digital Materiality and the New Relation between Depth and Surface, Futura Publications, Athens, 2013
Open Cube, interview with Adriano Pedrosa, White Cube, London, 2013
Objects and Materials, A Routledge Companion – front cover and interview, London, 2013
5th International Drawing Annual, Manifest Gallery, Ohio – essay on drawing, 2010
Wallpaper Magazine ‘Umbras Game’ feature, January 09
Artist Newsletter – front cover feature, November 08
Essay – ‘What is Drawing For?’ Tracey – Contemporary Drawing Network, October 07
New Art from London – Chris Townsend, Thames and Hudson, London, 2006
Commissions:
The Foundling Museum, Finding Family, 2023
ACME website commission, Tools, 2013
Held in the Hand, Leicestershire Artworks, 2009
Deptford X, site specific piece in Creekside river, Arts Council funding, 2008
South London Gallery, Route 12:36, Artwork on bus routes 12 and 36, 2000
Residencies / Fellowships:
Bromley High School, London 2024
Rabley Contemporary Drawing Centre, May / June 2009
Greatmore Studios, Cape Town, Gasworks Gallery / Triangle Arts Trust, Feb - April 08
Richard DeMarco Art Foundation Space – Skateraw, Scotland, August 05
Ravensbourne School, Bromley, February 01
Awards:
Shortlisted for AWITA / Brookfields commission, Of Being Numerous, 2024
Shortlisted for Royal Society of Sculptors First Plinth Award, 2023
Arts Council grant - I Wrap My Fear Around Me Like A Blanket, 2022
AN Time Space Money Bursary
Arts Council Funding - Memory of Clothes, Worthing Museum
A-N The Artists Information Company, Professional Development Bursary, March 2017
Arts Council / Lottery funding for Deptford X project, September 08
AHRB Grant for MA, 2003 - 04
Birds Charity (Royal Academy of Arts) Award, August 03
South Square Trust Grant, July 04
Presentations / Seminars:
Watts Gallery / Royal Society of Sculptors, Material Matter, 2022
Cross disciplinary seminar ‘Safe Spaces’ - Taunton Brewhouse / Close Ltd, 2022
Clothing Memories, University of Westminster, June 19
Objects Unwrapped, Worthing Museum, University of Brighton, June 19
Presentation to MA Design History and Material Culture, University of Brighton, January 19
Memory of Clothes, Foundling Museum, July 18
Memory of Clothes, University of Westminster, December 17
Rabley Contemporary Drawing Centre, June 09
Royal College of Art, London, October 08
Michaelis School of Art, Cape Town, March 08
University College for the Creative Arts, April 05
Rabley Contemporary Drawing Centre, March 05
Farnham Maltings, November 99
Selected Collections:
Deborah Ronnen Fine Art, New York
Joe Shlesinger and Samara Walbohm, Toronto, Canada
Colección Isabel y Agustín Coppel, Mexico
Rodney Lubeznik, Chicago
Richard DeMarco Archive, Edinburgh
Teaching / workshop experience:
The ground that gathers beneath my feet, workshops at YMCA, 2025
Our House, Kingswood Arts Centre, workshops with elders, 2025
Taunton Brewhouse, cross generational workshops, 2022
Drawing workshop, MA fine art programme, UAE Canterbury, 2029
Guildcare, Worthing, practical and talking workshops in care home for the elderly. 2018-19
Market Hall Musuem, Rugby, series of workshops with an Asians womens group exploring stories of migration through objects and clothing. October 2017
St Pauls Girls School, Part-time sculpture teacher. 2008 to current
National Maritime Museum, School project with artist Alice Wilson, 2017
Johanna Primary School, London, workshop and careers talk. June 16
The Usher Gallery, Lincoln, Drawing workshop with primary aged children. October 12
Cape Town Society for the Blind, workshop with blind / visually impaired adults. March 08
UCCA, Maidstone, Foundation Course, Sessional Fine Art tutor. 2005 - 09
City and Guilds London School of Art, Foundation Course, Visiting tutor. 2006 - 07
Wimbledon School of Art, Short courses, Visiting tutor. 2006 - 08
Working Mens College - Camden, Adult education, Life drawing tutor. 2006 - 07
Community Education Lewisham, Adult education, Life drawing tutor. 2004 - 07
Whitefield School and Centre, Walthamstow, Drawing workshop with children with special educational needs. May 06
Shaw Primary School, Ockenden, Art workshop with key stage 1 and 2. January 06
Lea Rivers Trust, Drawing workshop for primary school teachers. May 05
The Children’s Society, Refugee Week, workshop with children / young people. May 05
Camberwell College of Art, crit sessions on the BA Drawing course. June 04
Youth Education Support Services, Camberwell, Part-time Art tutor, set up and ran YESS Art department. Working with excluded 11 to 20 year olds. 2004 - 2005
Greenhouse School Projects, Hammersmith, workshops with 11 to 15 year olds. August 03
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