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STATEMENT
Since graduating from the Byam Shaw School of Art in ’87, Fiona Campbell has been working and exhibiting as an Artist, with a break whilst raising her son and teaching Art. Fiona works in a diverse range of media – from drawings, paintings to mixed media and 3-d - her focus being steel, copper and wire sculptures, sometimes created out of found and scrap materials. “I like the concept of reusing things – giving them a rebirth – and the playfulness of creating forms from given shapes. I moved into steel and wire because of its capacity to produce linear structures. I like the starkness and contrast of steel against natural textures and the earthiness of rust as it ages. The wire adds a more delicate, colourful dimension.” Fiona is currently interested in creating pieces built up in layers whilst retaining an element of transparency.
Drawing is usually Fiona’s starting point. The woven coloured wires in some of her sculptures have parallels with the textures and marks in her drawings. Some of Fiona’s figurative pieces retain an element of academic linear form – taken into 3-d, as drawings in space.
Fiona likes to create pieces which have a strong presence. Primarily, she is interested in human, animal and plant structures, the overlapping connections and contrasts - particularly in skeletal forms. Fiona’s upbringing and frequent trips to Kenya have a strong bearing on the earthy, organic, exaggerated forms, textures and colours with which she works. “I have always been intrigued by nests and the process of weaving intricate structures; the sculptural forms of cocoons and anthills are awesome; insects, generally, fascinate me with their bulbous, solid structures on spiky pincer-pointed legs.”
BACKGROUND
Born and raised in Kenya (’62), Fiona Campbell studied at West Sussex College of Design (’80-’81), Newcastle Polytechnic (’81-83), Byam Shaw School of Art, London (’84-’87) and Exeter University (’93-’94), gaining Art Foundation (merit), BS Fine Art (Sculpture) Diploma (distinction) and PGCE.
Fiona has been developing her art over many years exhibiting widely, particularly in Southern England, with collections abroad. Exhibitions include Merz Contemporary Art Gallery, London; Tobacco Art Gallery, London; Black Swan Arts, Frome; Atkinson Gallery, Street; Delamore Gallery and Sculpture Garden, Devon and a Solo Exhibition at Tobacco Factory, Bristol. Fiona was represented by the Fire and Iron Gallery, Surrey for several years and is currently represented by the Ginger Fig Gallery, Taunton. Fiona shows at various Art and Design Fairs, participates in Somerset Art Weeks Events, local Festivals and works to private and public commission for indoor and outdoor sculptures.
Concurrent with working as an Artist, Fiona runs Workshops, represents NADFAS Charity Organisation as a Young Arts School Groups Organiser in the South West and teaches Art part-time at All Hallows Preparatory School. Fiona moved to the South West from London where she held two consecutive Artist-in-Residence posts at Kensington and Chelsea College and Westminster Institute (’90-’92), worked as a Sculpture Technician and in Props, Set and Lighting Design in the late ‘80’s.
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