Hondartza Fraga
Drawing is central to my practice, which employs a diverse range of materials, techniques, scales, and styles. Many works combine analogue and digital means of image-making, where subjects are explored through multiple iterations. Beyond anything else, my work conveys the experience of corresponding with things that are difficult to apprehend for being too big or too small, too distant or too close, but also too ephemeral, fragile, or hazardous. I use ‘things’ as an overarching term to include places or objects, materials, concepts, real or imagined. The sea and outer space are recurrent sources of inspiration. My starting points come often from archives and museum collections, but other works emerge from an open-ended interactions with the materials at hand in the studio.
Recent projects have included commissions or residencies responding to the 1815 geological map by William Smith at North Lincolnshire Museum (2021), Leeds Art Gallery’s Cotman/Kitson archive (2017) the site and history of Jodrell Bank Observatory (2016); amongst others. My work is featured in Vitamin D3: Today’s Best Contemporary Drawing by Phaidon (2021). In 2020, I created the miniature art gallery Beyond Scale, which has featured exhibitions by other contemporary artists.
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Hondartza Fraga was born in 1982 in A Coruña, Spain and lives and works in Leeds, UK. She has a PhD (practice-led) by the University of Leeds (2024), an MA Fine Art Practice from Sheffield Hallam University (2007) and a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from The University of the Basque Country (2005). Fraga’s work is represented by Espacio Alexandra (Spain) and The Art Court (UK).
Education
2024 PhD (Practice-led), School of Design, University of Leeds
2007 MA Fine Art, Sheffield Hallam University (Distinction Award)
2005 BA (Hons) Fine Art, University of the Basque Country, Spain
Grants and Awards
2024/25 Artists’ Bursary from a-n The Artist Information Company
2017 PhD Full Scholarship by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through an award from the White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (WRoCAH), University of Leeds
2015 The Tetley’s 2015 Collection. Shortlisted artist. The Tetley, Leeds
2014 Arts Council England Grant for the Arts for the project Curio•sea•ty; A collaborative project with artist Lorna Barrowclough
2013 The Leverhulme Trust Artist-in-Residency Grant At the Maritime Historical Studies Centre, University of Hull, Hull.
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Placing Mars, Kate Orme Studio & Gallery, Springfield Mills, Denby Dale
_____ Upon a Painted Ocean at Grundy Art Gallery (Winder Programme), Blackpool
2024 Seeing Beyond, Eye Room x The Art Court, Leeds
_____ Beyond Scale, Our Big Picture, Grimsby
2023 Uncalibrated, Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds
2021 Ghosts of Saturn, Espacio Alexandra, Santander Spain
2020 Conjunctions and oppositions, at Beyond Scale (miniature gallery), online/virtual
2019 Beautiful Artefacts, Left Bank Leeds, UK
2018 Not for Navigation, Grimsby Minster, Our Big picture, Grimsby
–––– Clever Beasts Invented Knowing, Arte Santander, Espacio Alexandra, Santander, Spain
2017Irresistible Distance, School of Design, University of Leeds, UK
–––– Distancia Irresistible, Biblioteca Central de Cantabria, curated by Alexandra García from Espacio Alexandra, Santander, Spain
2016 Not for Navigation, The International 3, Salford, Manchester
–––– From Dark Matter to White Noise, Barnaby Arts Festival, Macclesfield
2015 The Sea Full Stop, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester
–––– Curio•sea•ty (two person show), East Street Arts Project Space in Leeds and South Square Gallery, Bradford.
2014 El Mar Indirecto, Espacio creativo Alexandra, Santander, Spain
2013 A Still Better Seaward Peep, Various Venues (Ferens Art Gallery, Maritime Museum, Hull History Centre, Artlink), Hull
Curatorial
2020 (ongoing) Beyond Scale Gallery, micro art gallery
2022 Seeing Stars (Guest Curated by Fraga), The Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, Unviersity of Leeds
2019 Here Be Whales, Left Bank Leeds (Co-curated)
2012-2019 pocagallery, contemporary art space in Portugalete, Spain
Recent Group Exhibitions
2024 The Spring Exhibition, First White Cloth Hall x The Art Court
2023 Babble, Ilkeston Contemporary Art, ILKON
____ Leeds Artists Show, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds
____ Made In Leeds, Northlight Arts Centre, Leeds
2022 Seeing Stars, The Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, Unviersity of Leeds
____ Drawing at Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield
____ Sixty Drawings Plus Ten, The Whitaker Museum and Art Gallery
____ Summer Group Show, Leeds Playhouse
____ A Charm of Goldfinches (touring), Gage Gallery, Sheffield
2021Definitions of Drawing, Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds
____ Letting it Settle, with Hyphae Drawing Collective, Touchbase Gallery, Folkstone
2020 Drawn to Investigate, The Ruskin, Lancaster University
____ Tracing Entropy, Foyer Gallery, School of Design, University of Leeds
____ Talking Sense, The Portico Library, Manchester
2019 Envisioning Other Worlds, Raw Lab Arts, London
____ Here Be Whales, Left Bank Leeds (Co-curated)
2018 Truth and Fantasy (touring, multiple venues), Craven Museum and Gallery, Skipton
____ Cosmic Perspectives, Ugly Duck, London (curated by Lumen Studios)
2017 Hondartza Fraga: Archive Blues, part of Shelter From The Storm John Sell Cotman, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, UK
2016 Miniature World, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
2015 Del Azul Mar al Negro Abismal, Museo Marítimo del Cantábrico, Santander, Spain
–––– The Whole Wide World, The International 3, Manchester
2014 The Whales of August, Wayfarers Brooklyn, New York, USA
–––– So Far, So Awesome, The [Re]Enchantment Imperative, Fountains Abbey, Ripon
–––– The Drawing Project, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
Residencies/Commissions
2025 (upcoming) Artist-in-residence at Crinan Hotel with artist Ross Ryan, Scotland
2021 Wonderful Order, new work responding to William Smith Geological Map 1815, North Lincolnshire Museum, Scunthorpe
2017 Artist-In-Residence Rethinking Cotman, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds
2016 From Dark Matter to White Noise, Barnaby Arts Festival in association with Jodrell Bank, Macclesfield
2015 Upon a Painted Ocean, New work for a solo display at Manchester Art Gallery
2014 Commissioned by Chapter Arts Centre, Paul Evans and Longbarrow Press for Laugharne Poetry and Film Festival
2013 Leverhulme Trust, Artist-in-Residence, Maritime Historical Studies Centre, University of Hull
2011 Occursus first artist-in-residence at Site Gallery, Sheffield
2010 Artist in Residence at LKV, Trondheim, Norway
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