Sarah Purvey
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Essence SoldView more details
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Rhythm, 2017 SoldView more details
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Boundaries, 2020£ 935.00View more details
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Boundary, 2021 SoldView more details
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Dancer, 2021 SoldView more details
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Fairytale, 2021£ 1,210.00View more details
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Ochre Edge, 2021 SoldView more details
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Borderline, 2023£ 1,265.00View more details
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Dance, 2023 SoldView more details
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Drawing Breath, 2023£ 1,150.00View more details
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Gatekeeper, 2023£ 1,515.00View more details
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Waver, 2023 SoldView more details
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Missed us at Collect 2024?
Our presentation is available to view and purchase online 28 Feb - 31 Mar 2024Missed us at Collect? See the collection and installation images here. For Collect 2024 at Somerset House Cavaliero Finn presented The Alchemy of Nature at the fair featuring work by...Read more -
Winter - The weakening eye of day
Gallery 12, Cromwell Place, South Kensington, London SW7 2JE - 22nd-26th November, 11am - 7pm Wed-Sat 11am-4pm Sun 22 - 26 Nov 2023In November 2023, Cavaliero Finn presented a selection of artworks at Cromwell Place chosen to evoke winter in different ways, whether it’s capturing the essence of it through light and colour, the sense of decay through texture and material, or the sense of beauty hope and renewal through composition and context. The Winter exhibition was dedicated to artist Judith Tucker who died suddenly on Monday November 13th 2023.Read more -
Crafting a Difference at Formed, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour
Proudly presented by Cavaliero Finn, jaggedart and Vessel Gallery 9 - 13 Oct 2023The Crafting a Difference collective has worked together since the pandemic offering a distinctive and unique selection of museum quality works and vast knowledge and experience in both the craft...Read more -
Elemental Lines
Cavaliero Finn at Ballroom Arts 152A High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk IP15 5AQ UK 8 - 18 Jun 2023This exhibition, which coincided with the Aldeburgh Festival in Suffolk, took place in Ballroom Arts a beautiful space overlooking the North Sea. Elemental Lines examined how the lines of the...Read more
Before becoming Artist in Residence at Bath Spa University Corsham Court in 2020, Sarah's practice was primarily in ceramic using monumental sculptural vessels as her carrier. Her practice now is more evenly divided between two- and three-dimensional form, with drawing being the unifying factor between both mediums.
Talking about Sarah's work Dr Ian Massey, independent art historian, writer and curator said: "Purvey works both in clay and on paper, an interrelated body of work in which drawing is the unifying factor.
"Throughout, the process is instinctive and organic. In clay there are vessels and deeply encrusted relief pieces, the latter roughly circular or square. The vessels are not functional but are highly distinctive sculptural objects, their surfaces earthy and tactile. They are made from one of two types of clay, both containing grog, which provides additional body and emphasises materiality. One is red, and becomes black during firing; the other, named crank is paler, and retains its rather fleshy tone after leaving the kiln. Each vessel begins with a round or oval base, to which long coils of clay are pressed into place, structure built up in short bursts of intense activity. The artist strives to work meditatively and at speed, listening, feeling, responding, finding herself lost in the making, each pinch of clay equivalent to a single heartbeat. As she progresses, words and conversations surface from an internal dialogue, as though from the intermittent babble of a crossed telephone line, often prompting her to pause in order to note them down. One is struck by the idea that these fragments of language might effectively become written into the work, as inflections within the overall design. For one senses - and this becomes apparent in conversation with the artist - that there is a private language, of thought and meaning underlying the work in its entirety."
Born and raised in Middlesex, Sarah Purvey moved to Plymouth in 1986 to attend Plymouth College of Art. It was there that she was introduced to clay and moved to Bath College of Higher Education completing her first degree in ceramics in 1991.
After a gap of nearly twenty years living and raising her family in North Wiltshire, Sarah returned to education in 2008 to undertake the Master's Programme based at Bath Spa University's Corsham Court Campus where she was Artist in Residence.
Study
2009 MA Ceramics, Bath School of Art & Design, Bath Spa University
1991 BA Ceramics, Bath School of Art & Design
1988 BTec Ceramics, Plymouth College of Art
Exhibitions
2009-2023 Since completing her MA Sarah Purvey has exhibited every year. Exhibitions have included solo shows, group shows, prizes, awards, art fairs and residencies with independent and public galleries in the UK and internationally including the USA, Holland, Germany.
Public Collections
2021 Pallant House Chichester: Ceramic
2021 Chippenham Museum : Hand Finished Carborundum Print
2020 Chippenham Museum : Drawing
2019 Chippenham Museum : Ceramic
2019 Swindon Museum & Art Gallery : Drawing
2017 Bath Spa University Corsham Court Collection : Ceramic
2016 Swindon Museum & Art Gallery : Ceramic
2012 Bath Spa University Corsham Court Collection : Ceramic
Selected Publications and Articles
2023 Contemporary British Studio Pottery- Forms of Expression : Ashley Thorpe
2022 Boundaries Solo Exhibition Catalogue essay by Dr Ian Massey
2020 Modern and Contemporary Art, Chippenham Museum Catalogue
2016 Ceramic Review Issue 282 Fresh Space Article
2016 From Where I'm Standing : Catalogue Swindon Museum and Art Gallery
2015 Inspirational Magazine : Feature by John Hopper
2014 Pallette Pages Interview : by Lisa Gray
2013 Ceramic Review Bath Abbey Hospitality Show : Review by Ian Wilson
2012 Aspect Magazine : Front cover image Ecclesiastical Annual Art & Heritage Review
2011 Museum Of International Ceramics (Mic) Faenza, presentation Mirco Denicolo