Approved: 20.08.2012

Holly Rowan Hesson

Artist, Consultant, Marketing professional, Project manager, Researcher

Approved: 20.08.2012

I make installations, sculptural and photographic works that create altered visual and sensory effects and environments.

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News

     

    Artist Statement

    I make installations, sculptural and photographic works that create altered visual and sensory effects and environments.

    I do this with light through photography, projection and various other light sources. Alongside light I employ industrial and mass-produced materials that are either already highly coloured or that are colourless which I then enrich with colour. I use processes and materials that distort and disorientate, for example through reflection, blurring, layering and duplication.

    My work is underpinned and motivated by my interests in how physical space, architecture and the built environment is experienced. I often explore sites in flux, transition or hiatus, working intuitively with the space as a material in itself as well as a container to make an intervention full of content and references to the surrounding context including economic, social, cultural and environmental.

    Time is also important including the experience of the passage of time in the space in which I’m working, my own time and labour spent in making the work, the time taken for a viewer to experience and process the finished work and time as it relates to labour and value in general.

    Ultimately my installations and sculptural works seek to visually draw you in, make you question what you’re seeing, juxtaposing and contrasting perceived reality, solidity, permanence and simplicity with uncertainty, fragility, ambiguity and complexity.

     

     

    CV & Education

    Biography

    Holly Rowan Hesson lives and works near Leeds, UK. She has exhibited in solo and group shows nationally over the last nine years. Solo exhibitions include Echo, commissioned by Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival at Pyramid Arts Centre in 2017, New Work at & Model, Leeds in 2016 and Assembly at Bankley Gallery, Manchester in 2016 which was awarded after winning the Bankley Gallery Open.

    Hesson was invited to exhibit with Paul Huxley RA by Royal Society of Sculptors for The Line London in 2018, selected for the inaugural Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art in 2017 and was presented by Castlefield Gallery at The Manchester Contemporary in 2015. 

    Solo exhibitions 

    • Snap, Thorpe Park, Leeds, 2022

    • Echo, Pyramid, Warrington, 2017 (commissioned by Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival)

    • Assembly, Bankley Gallery, Manchester, 2016

    • New Work, & Model, Leeds, 2016

    • Only forward, Piccadilly Place, Manchester, 2013

    Selected group exhibitions

    • Palindrome, Critical Fish, publication, 2023

    • Wet Dovetail 2:4, virtual, 2022

    • Soanyway issue 11, online, 2022

    • Conversation in Colour, arebyte, London, 2018 (two person show with Paul Huxley RA curated by Royal Society of Sculptors for The Line)

    • Micro-commission, The Art House, Wakefield, 2018

    • Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art, Coventry, 2017

    • Creekside Open, A.P.T Gallery, London, 2017 (selected by Jordan Baseman, artist and Head of Sculpture at RCA)

    • Graft, PS Mirabel, Manchester, 2017

    • Phantom, Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge, 2017

    • Spectrum, PS Mirabel, Manchester, 2016 (selected by Mark Doyle, Gallery Curator and Collections Manager at Touchstones, Magnus Quaife, artist and lecturer, Robert Miller, contemporary art collector, Lisa Denyer, artist)

    • The Manchester Contemporary, presented by Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, 2015

    • Tracing PAPER, PAPER Gallery, Manchester, 2015

    • Open House, Federation House, Manchester, 2015

    • Glitter & Gold, Cardroom, Manchester, 2014

    • Bankley Open, Bankley Gallery, Manchester, 2014 (selected by Kate Jesson, Curator at Manchester Art Gallery, Kwong Lee, Director at Castlefield Gallery, Chris Bloor, Co-director at &Model gallery, Peter Seal, artist)

    • HOARD, HOARD, Leeds, 2014

    • Society of Island Universes, Piccadilly Place, Manchester, 2014

    • Artifice, PS Mirabel, Manchester, 2013

    • Catalyst, Piccadilly Place, Manchester, 2013

    • Saatchi Screen, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2013

    • Summer Show, Malgras Naudet, Manchester, 2013

    • Journeys and Migrations, Hand Made in Bradford, Bradford, 2012

    • Reverb, Bankley Gallery, Manchester, 2012

    Awards

    • Developing Your Creative Practice Arts Council England award, 2021

    • Freelands Foundation Emergency Award, 2020

    • Board Member of Royal Society of Sculptors, 2019

    • Member of Royal Society of Sculptors, 2019

    • A-n Artist Bursary, 2019

    • Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust Award, 2018

    • Arts Council England Grants for the Arts award, 2017

    • PS Mirabel Open prize commendation (selected by Mark Doyle, Gallery Curator and Collections Manager at Touchstones, Magnus Quaife, artist and lecturer at MMU, Robert Miller, contemporary art collector, Lisa Denyer, artist), 2016

    • A-n Professional Development Bursary, 2016

    • Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust Award, 2016

    • Arts Council England Grants for the Arts award, 2015

    • Castlefield Gallery/ Creative Industries Trafford individual mentoring award, 2015

    • Tracing PAPER by PAPER Gallery award, 2015

    • Bankley Gallery Open first prize winner (selected by Kate Jesson, Curator at Manchester Art Gallery, Kwong Lee, Director at Castlefield Gallery, Chris Bloor, Co-director at &Model gallery, Peter Seal, artist), 2014

    Residencies

    • AA2A artist in residence, York St John University, 2018-9

    • & Model residency, & Model, Leeds, 2016

    • From the Rooftops, The Penthouse, Manchester, 2013

    Writing

    Press

    Education

    • MA Contemporary Fine Art (Distinction), University of Salford, 2013

    • Certificate in Art and Design (Distinction), Calderdale College, 2010