Rebecca Newnham | The Work
Statement
Rebecca Newnham works predominately as a sculptor. The sculpture is recognisable: the structures are fluid, organic and undulating. Forms are influenced by the natural world, by science, by an understanding of materials gained from her hands on approach. As the sculpture is driven by the natural language of form, it sits well in a landscape and is often monumental. Other smaller works punctuate indoor spaces, playing with light on their reflective surfaces. The organic curves and lines are strong and compliment architecture, garden design, the natural landscape. Installations are sometimes site specific. They can be static or kinetic, some float or suspend or rotate.
Currently Newnham is working on WAVE, a 15m floating installation which considers the ever increasing volume of information which invisibly surrounds us. The five sections have an internal steel structure, have a highly polished red surface and are invisibly chained together and anchored to allow the work to respond to wind and water flow. WAVE is red because in the colour spectrum, red appears at this wavelength.
FLEDGE; INCREMENTS OF FLIGHT was exhibited in ’Liminality’, at Salisbury Cathedral, curated by Jacquiline Creswell. The group of four winged sculptures describe a liminal journey, snap shot stages of flight. They rotate on concealed bearings, responding to touch or the wind, and have a glass skin with a fiberglass and steel structure. Bronze sculptures have developed from this exploration of flight and progression, in particular SOAR which can be seen in Debut's gallery.
The Winchester exhibition ‘The Figure in the Landscape, ’2010-2011, curated by Rachel Bebb, included work by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Newnham’s sculpture, FIGURE 8 was included. FIGURE 8 responds to Hengistbury Head, a sand spit with a rich history as an Iron Age trading post, a pre Roman port, possibly the first urban settlement in England.
CV
EDUCATION
1991 Royal College of Art, MA (RCA) Glass.
1985-88 Staffordshire Polytechnic, Multi-disciplinary Design, BA (Hons)
EXHIBITIONS
2012 Sabrina Landini Gallery, Pietrasanta, Italy. Group exhibition.
2012 The Figure in the Landscape, Winchester. Group exhibition with Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Peter Randall Page, Emily Young
2012,11,10,09 Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden, Ockley, Surrey. Summer season gallery.
2012,11 Beukenhof gallery and Sculpture Park, Belgium. Summer season sculpture park.
2012,11 Garden Gallery, Broughton, Hampshire. Summer season sculpture garden curated by Rachel Bebb.
2011 More than Floral, group exhibition. Bilston Gallery, West Midland, touring to the Scottish Highlands.
2011, 09 Freshair, Quenington Sculpture Trust. Group show
2011 Unilever’s Research Facility Plaza, Port Sunlight. Solo exhibition,
2010 Liminality at Salisbury Cathedral, 8 artists response to the theme and the space.
2008 Photosynthesis. Hillier Gardens. Solo exhibition. Body of work resulting from collaboration with the gardens.
20010, 09, 08, 07, 06, 05 Artdejardin, Rutland, sculpture show featuring Rebecca’s sculpture.
2007 Hillier Gardens, Southampton. Art in the Garden. Group sculpture show.
2007 Light and Significant Numbers. Highcliffe castle, Christchurch, Dorset. Work in castle grounds and old library. Also David Bird’s photographs of Rebecca’s sculpture in significant sea and landscape.
AWARDS
2010 ARBS. Associate of the Royal British Society of Sculptors
COMMISSIONS
2012-13 WAVE a 15m floating sculptural installation for a lake at the Himalayan Gardens in North Yorkshire; to be installed in March 2013.
2012 MGM Resorts commissioned Dancers, a pair of 3.5m tall sculptures for Aria Casino, Las Vegas. Dancers are still in transit and are expected to arrive any day.
2011 JWT and Kenco commissioned a series of 8 sculptures which were exhibited in London, Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool. A Facebook campaign resulted in the final homes of the 8 sculptures.
2011 QUERCUS ROBER, 2.5m tall group of sculptures for the gardens of LOROS in Leicester
2011 FLEDGE UPLIFT, 450mm tall, bronze. Following on from ‘Fledge; increments of Flight’ as exhibited in Salisbury Cathedral, a further sculpture considering flight and the liminal journey was cast in bronze.
2010 MAGNOLIA: 2m diameter sculpture, floats in a lake at the Himalayan Gardens in North Yorkshire.
2009 Chris Beardshaw and Ness Botanical Gardens commissioned BULLEYANA for a garden exhibited at Tatton Park before installation at Ness Gardens.
2008 Elstone Hayes commissioned FRONDIS, a 13m tall atrium installation for Royal Caribbean’s ‘Sovereign’.
2007 Elstone Hayes commissioned 7 sculptures for Cunard’s new Queen Victoria Cruise ship: WHITE GRASS and DANCERS
2007 Two groups of sculpture TAXUS and DNA SEEDLINGS, for private gardens, Cambridge
2007 LOTOS sculpture for home and hotel in Italy.
2007 Two sculptures, KALYPTON and AKALYPTOS, for a roof terrace at London’s Barbican.
2006 Museumaker, an Arts Council project competition. Commissioned to make a 1m tall LOTUS sculpture for New Walk Museum, Leicester. Reflects cultural and natural aspects of the collections.
2006 Museumaker project competition. SEEDLING sculptures each 2m tall for the gardens of 78 Derngate, Northampton, the Charles Rennie Mackintosh museum. Inspired by Mackintosh’s stylised trees.
2005 Elstone Hayes commissioned 5 sculptures: BUD 2, a pair of Reed sculptures, and a pair of NAUTILUS sculptures, for 2 cruise ships. Each between 600mm and 1.6m tall
2004 Gresham Palace, Budapest. Four Seasons. 16 mosaic tree planters each 1.1m diameter, for Four Seasons Hotels. Commissioned by Richmond International. Designs that worked with a lovingly restored Secessionist interior.
2003 MAB commissioned a 4m wall panel for Dalkeith, Bournemouth. Imagery inspired by Merton Russell-Coates.
2002 Architects Jestico and Wiles commissioned five glass wall panels, each up to 3m long, illustrating botanical imagery inspired by writers connected to Leatherhead, Surrey, for a shopping centre development.
2000 Sandy Lane Hotel, Barbados, commissioned by Richmond International. Abstract inlayed lines of blue glass mosaic, 50m long.
PUBLICATIONS
Corning Glass Review 2008,09,10