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Holly Rowan Hesson

Leeds
Artist and researcher making installation, sculpture and photography. Creating altered visual and sensory works responding to the experience of physical space, architecture and the built environment.

I make installations, sculptural and photographic works that create altered visual and sensory effects and environments.

I do this with light through photography, projection and various other light sources. Alongside light I employ industrial and mass-produced materials that are either already highly coloured or that are colourless which I then enrich with colour. I use processes and materials that distort and disorientate, for example through reflection, blurring, layering and duplication.

My work is underpinned and motivated by my interests in how physical space, architecture and the built environment is experienced. I often explore sites in flux, transition or hiatus, working intuitively with the space as a material in itself as well as a container to make an intervention full of content and references to the surrounding context including economic, social, cultural and environmental.

Time is also important including the experience of the passage of time in the space in which I’m working, my own time and labour spent in making the work, the time taken for a viewer to experience and process the finished work and time as it relates to labour and value in general.

Ultimately my installations and sculptural works seek to visually draw you in, make you question what you’re seeing, juxtaposing and contrasting perceived reality, solidity, permanence and simplicity with uncertainty, fragility, ambiguity and complexity.

 

Biography

Holly Rowan Hesson lives and works near Leeds, UK. She has exhibited in solo and group shows nationally over the last eleven years. Solo exhibitions include Echo, commissioned by Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival at Pyramid Arts Centre in 2017, New Work at & Model, Leeds in 2016 and Assembly at Bankley Gallery, Manchester in 2016 which was awarded after winning the Bankley Gallery Open.

Hesson was invited to exhibit with Paul Huxley RA by Royal Society of Sculptors for The Line London in 2018, selected for the inaugural Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art in 2017 and was presented by Castlefield Gallery at The Manchester Contemporary in 2015. 

Solo exhibitions 

Snap, Thorpe Park, Leeds, 2022

Echo, Pyramid, Warrington, 2017 (commissioned by Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival)

Assembly, Bankley Gallery, Manchester, 2016

New Work, & Model, Leeds, 2016

Only forward, Piccadilly Place, Manchester, 2013

Selected group exhibitions

Let Us See You, Sunnybank Mills, 2025

Re:ject, Lens Lab Project, Leeds, 2024

RE-VIEW, Hull Artist Research Initiative, 2024

Locus Lancaster, Lancaster University, 2024

Palindrome, Critical Fish, publication, 2023

Wet Dovetail 2:4, virtual, 2022

Soanyway issue 11, online, 2022

Conversation in Colour, arebyte, London, 2018 (two person show with Paul Huxley RA curated by Royal Society of Sculptors for The Line)

Micro-commission, The Art House, Wakefield, 2018

Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art, Coventry, 2017

Creekside Open, A.P.T Gallery, London, 2017 (selected by Jordan Baseman, artist and Head of Sculpture at RCA)

Graft, PS Mirabel, Manchester, 2017

Phantom, Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge, 2017

Spectrum, PS Mirabel, Manchester, 2016 

The Manchester Contemporary, presented by Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, 2015

Tracing PAPER, PAPER Gallery, Manchester, 2015

Open House, Federation House, Manchester, 2015

Glitter & Gold, Cardroom, Manchester, 2014

Bankley Open, Bankley Gallery, Manchester, 2014 

HOARD, HOARD, Leeds, 2014

Society of Island Universes, Piccadilly Place, Manchester, 2014

Artifice, PS Mirabel, Manchester, 2013

Catalyst, Piccadilly Place, Manchester, 2013

Saatchi Screen, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2013

Summer Show, Malgras Naudet, Manchester, 2013

Journeys and Migrations, Hand Made in Bradford, Bradford, 2012

Reverb, Bankley Gallery, Manchester, 2012

Residencies and Projects

AA2A artist in residence, York St John University, 2024-5

Hull Artist Research Initiative, RE:VIEW, 2024

Leeds Creative Labs, University of Leeds Cultural Institute programme, 2024

AA2A artist in residence, York St John University, 2018-9

& Model residency, & Model, Leeds, 2016

From the Rooftops, The Penthouse, Manchester, 2013

Awards

Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society grant, 2024

UNBOUND Dynamic Artists for Public Spaces training and mentoring award, 2024

Leeds Creative Labs, University of Leeds, 2024

Developing Your Creative Practice Arts Council England award, 2021

Freelands Foundation Emergency Award, 2020

Board Member of Royal Society of Sculptors, 2019

Member of Royal Society of Sculptors, 2019

A-n Artist Bursary, 2019

Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust Award, 2018

Arts Council England Grants for the Arts award, 2017

PS Mirabel Open prize commendation, 2016

A-n Professional Development Bursary, 2016

Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust Award, 2016

Arts Council England Grants for the Arts award, 2015

Castlefield Gallery/ Creative Industries Trafford individual mentoring award, 2015

Tracing PAPER by PAPER Gallery award, 2015

Bankley Gallery Open first prize winner, 2014

Writing

Spatial Conversations: exploring the work of Holly Rowan Hesson - Sara Jaspan, 2017

Precarious Aesthetics: on the recent work of Holly Rowan Hesson - Derek Horton, 2016

Press

Axis – New Art Highlights, 2024

Axisweb - Five2Watch: Installation, 2018

Art in Liverpool - Featured Artist: Holly Rowan Hesson at Pyramid Arts Centre, 2017

Corridor8 - Holly Rowan Hesson: Echo | Pyramid Arts Centre, 2017

This is tomorrow - Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art review, 2017

A-n - Coventry Biennial 2017 review: a springboard for new responses, 2017

Creative Tourist - Graft at PS Mirabel, 2017

Axisweb – Five to Watch at The Manchester Contemporary, 2015

Axisweb – Artist of the Month, Holly Rowan Hesson, 2015

Corridor8 – Review: Holly Rowan Hesson – Residency, The Penthouse, Manchester, 2013

Education

MA Contemporary Fine Art (Distinction), University of Salford, 2013

Certificate in Art and Design (Distinction), Calderdale College, 2010

 

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