Collection of LOUISE FRANCES SMITH in a gallery layout

LOUISE FRANCES SMITH

Louise Frances Smith lives and works in Ramsgate, Kent. Her practice spans sculpture, installation and works on paper. Working with an array of materials including clay, seaweed and bioplastic, Smith creates highly textured surfaces to bring attention to the patterns and textures created by nature, magnifying micro details alongside man-made interventions. By collecting materials from her local coastline to use as materials in her work, Smith’s works are conceptually and physically linked to her local landscape where she takes her inspiration.



Last year Smith was selected as a finalist for The Ingram Prize 2023, exhibiting at Pavilion Gallery, Cromwell Place. Early in 2023 she received an Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grant to create a new body of work which was exhibited at Collect Open 2023, Somerset House. Smith later exhibited this work at The Margate School.



In 2022 Smith received DYCP Arts Council England funding which led to her first solo show at Joseph Wales Gallery ‘HOLDFAST, experiments in seaweed, chalk & clay’. Other recent group exhibitions include - ‘The Wild Collective’, collaborative exhibition between Thrown Contemporary & Metafleur at Omved Gardens, London; ‘Despatch’, Work Show Grow Mail Art Collaboration, New Forest Heritage Centre, and ‘ING Discerning Eye 2021’, Mall Galleries, London. Louise Frances Smith graduated from CityLit with a Ceramics Diploma in 2019 and from Kingston University with a BA (Hons) Fine Art degree in 2009.

ARTWORKS

EXHIBITIONS

GROUP EXHIBITION: LIMINAL SALON II

26 October - 23 November 2024

LOUISE FRANCES SMITH: IT GATHERED HERE

17 February - 11 May 2024

CV

Solo Exhibitions:

2024 It Gathered Here, Liminal Gallery, Margate (UK).

2022 HOLDFAST, Experiments with seaweed, chalk & clay, Joseph Wales Gallery, Margate (UK).

Group Shows:

2023 Collect Open, Collect 2023, Crafts Council, Somerset House, London (UK).

2022 Winter Exhibition 2022, Thrown Contemporary, (online exhibition, selected for ‘Ripples’ Curated Collection).

2022 East Kent Open House with Clayspace Studios, Margate (UK).

2022 The Wild Collective, collaborative exhibition between Thrown Contemporary and Metafleur at Omved Gardens, London (UK).

2022 Despatch, WorkShowGrow Mail Art Collaboration, New Forest Heritage Centre (UK).

2021 Winter Exhibition 2021, Thrown Contemporary (online exhibition, selected for ‘What a Wonderful World’ Curated Collection)

2021 ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London (UK), work selected by Adelaide Damoah.

2021 East Kent Open House, Margate (UK).

2021 Online Ceramics Fair, The Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield (UK).

2020 Online Ceramics Fair, The Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield (UK).

2019 TROVE, Joseph Wales Gallery, Margate (UK).

2019 Art in Clay, Hatfield House, Hatfield (UK).

2019 Sixteen30, Menier Gallery, London (UK).

2019 New Designers, Business Design Centre, London (UK).

2018 Group Exhibition, Safehouse 2, Peckham (UK).

2014 Open Exhibition, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Dulwich (UK).

2009 Graduation Show, Kingston University.

Grants & Awards:

2022 Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grant – awarded November 2022 for 5 Month project (Dec 2022 – April 2023) – project title ‘Sargassum Tide’.

2021 Developing Your Creative Practice – Arts Council England funding – awarded April 2021 for a one year project (June 2021 – June 2022) – project title ‘Local Materials, Seaweed and Clay’.

2020 South East Creatives Top Up Grant – awarded October 2020.

2020 Time Space Money – Bursary from a-n The Artists Information Company and Arts Council England, awarded June 2020.

Residencies:

2022 ReWilding Creative Residency, Glastonbury (UK).

2022 WorkShowGrow Residency, Colehaynes (UK).

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