Beatrice Hoffman studied sculpture at the Norwich School of Art from 1986-9. She is based in the Midlands and is working mostly in solid and coiled clay, creating sculptures both figurative and abstract to be cast in bronze and bronze resin. They vary in size between 25 and 100 cm height.
Her other carreer as an arts educator and therapist makes her very aware of the psychological and expressive potential of sculptures. Themes on the interface of mythology, psychology and spirituality - mental states, relationships, human identity, maternal love, and solitude are universal experiences that add meaning and expression to her work.
Having achieved a good response from galleries in Britain and abroad with sculptures for the domestic and garden environment, she is currently exploring working on a larger scale in a more public setting. She is particularly interested in using her experience as therapist to find forms that resonate with the public, and enable engagement and contemplation.
Creating my sculptures, I experience the ebb and tide of external sensations, and internal moods and feelings more intensely; the seclusion of the studio, and the seemingly repetative working process of refining surfaces enables a mixture of compulsion and reflection.
Stroking, pressing, squeezing, scraping, shaving, hacking, slapping the form into shape, the completed sculpture contains, condenses and transforms the feelings that went into its creation, and holds them in one cohesive object.
Beauty to me is simplicity, clarity, concentration and a degree of abstraction. It must extend beyond decorative prettiness. Beauty is to be able to hold contradictions, tensions and ambivalence – it is a balance kept despite conflict.
I am fascinated by ”strong form”. With both figurative and abstract sculptures, I search for a sense of fullness contrasted with negative shapes; sharp angles between surfaces, juxtaposed with smoothness.
I am influenced by C.G. Jungʼs ideas of archetypes and equally by childhood memories of Sunday visits to a catholic church filled with Baroque carvings .I reconnect with the tradition of sculptures seen in places of worship, and work towards a spiritually potent image used in a secular context.
Themes on the interface of mythology, psychology and spirituality – mental states, relationships, human identity, maternal love, and solitude are universal experiences that influence my artwork.
I hope to enable engagement and contemplation: for the viewer to find reflected in my sculptures a feeling, experience or preoccupation, and through this empathy, solace, and understanding derive some healing .
Solo Exhibitions:
2010 – Lewis Gallery Rugby “Sculptures 2000-2010”
2008 – Turrill Garden Oxford
2007 – Canons Ashby House
2006 – Gallery Hesseltime. Banbury
2005 – Buckingham Gallery Suffolk
2003 – Blender Gallery Banbury
2001 – The Old Workshop Gallery , Norfolk
2000 – Gallery Jeanne Munich Germany
1999 – Gallery Gissinghall, Suffolk
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2012 Galleri New Form, Sweden
2011 – Meller Merceux, Oxford
Arlington Arts Centre
Bevere Gallery, near Worcester
2003-11 – Buckingham Gallery, Southwold
2010 Arlington Arts Centre, Berkshire
2009 – ArtForYouth Art Fair, Oxford and The Mall
Louise Darby, Clay Barn Exhibition, Warwickshire
Hemingway Gallery, near Oxford
The Gallery Upstairs, Warwickshire
2008 Orange Street Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland
Hemingway Gallery, near Oxford
2007 J gallery Shortlisted “Best of the Best Artist of Northamptonshire”
2006 – “Off The Wall” Art Fair Aylesbury
2006-8 – Broomhill Sculpture Park and Hotel (Devon)
2005 – Modern Artist Gallery Berkshire
Gallery Number Nine, Birmingham
Gallery Artifix, Sutton Colefield
Gallery Karen Taylor, Twickenham, London
2004-6 – Turnerfinearts (Art Agent in Birmingham)
2004-5 –
Gallery Sculptastix, Marylebone, London
2003-5 – Merriscourt Gallery, Chipping Norton
2003 –
Galerie Hoopman (Amsterdam, Netherlands
Gallery Julia Boston , London
2002-3 – “Works on Paper”, Royal College of Art
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