VANESSA NOTLEY (UK)
Vanessa Notley (GB) has developed an artistic language that delves into the register of sculpture and drawing. In her sculptural work sheworks continuously with materials that can be cut out, rolled up, fixed together to make hollow sculptures of simple exterior forms.
Intrigued by the rather seductive aspect of polished steel, she uses the metal to create soft, floating forms. We often associate metal with a certain violence (machines, tools, knives …) but her sculptures evoke a movement where shapes and forms wander, float, fall in and out of shape.
The border between the seductive and the clumsy, the question of power and non-power, the imposing and the fragile are part of the themes that get translated into Notley’s sculptures and drawings.
Vanessa Notley
Her inspiration ranges from literature to scientific illustration where odd, biting thoughts, images and reflections can create an idea and then become a sculpture or drawing. Her art has a humorous side to it. She explores the beauty in something that is a bit off tilt, a little clumsy, that seduces but at the same time is not quite right.
Notley is interested in the simple understandings and misunderstandings of languages. The small detail that catches your eye, at first glimpse you may just see a woman, an animal… but there is something else there, a mystery, that says something about our contemporary society.
Vanessa Notley is originally from Scotland and has worked in a variety of places including China, Germany and the U.S. Notley has participated in several group and solo exhibitions around the world, including France, Germany and China and has received several awards and support from institutions such as the Delegation Regionale d’Art Contemporain, Fonds Regional d’Art Contpemporain, the CREDAC, the Conseil Régional du Languedoc-Roussillon, the sculpture centre in Monolieu and from the town of Sète, France. Notley lives and works in France.
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