Artist Statement
Sharon Adams tells stories through crafted objects. Deeply rooted in the farming landscape, her practice is directed by an intuitive response to the local and her emerging relationship to her homeplace. Seeking out points of connection with its lines and surfaces, textures and patterns she produces objects and drawings informed by a life-long relationship with a landscape that is both familiar and ever-changing.
Previous work includes interpretations of tools and of land & weather measurements. In 2018 she started to make direct explorations of her connection to the townland where her family has farmed for five generations, and this new body of work responds specifically to the area that lies within the horizon seen from her home at Frocess Yard.
Film Makers Documentation by TACA Works
Experimental Gastronomy by Steinbeisser
Biography
After a successful career in event management, Sharon left London in 2008 to join the full-time degree course in 3D Materials Practice at the University of Brighton, graduating in June 2011.
In the process of her studies, it became clear that the time had come to move back to Northern Ireland. So in spring 2013 she exchanged her London flat for a lovely old farmhouse next to her family home in County Antrim. With her workshop established in one of the stone barns, she continues to explore the landscape around her.
BBC Radio Ulster Interview 2015
Selected Exhibitions
- Undoings, The Sussex Contemporary, Newhaven 2025
- Maker Project [RE] connected, Hive Gallery, Bolton 2024
- Beyond Edges, Ards Arts Centre, 2022
- Beyond Edges, Roe Valley Arts Centre, 2021
- ForM, Bangor Castle Walled Garden, 2021
- Pinned Craft NI, Belfast 2020
- Horizon (solo show) R-Space Gallery, Lisburn, January 2020
- Maker Project GNCCF, Manchester, 2019
- Intersection (solo show) Flowerfield Arts Centre 2018
- Experimental Gastronomy, Steinbeisser, Amsterdam, 2018
- Film Makers, Nerve Visual Derry, 2017
- Film Makers, The Braid, Ballymena 2017
- Works of the Heart, Toast, Westbourne Grove, London 2017
- Film Makers, R-Space Gallery Lisburn 2016
- Natural Makers, Touchstones Rochdale, 2015
- RDS National Craft Competition, Dublin, 2014
- Make it Slow, Art Unpacked, Yorkshire, 2013
- Utility, Craft in the Bay, Cardiff, 2013
- Things That Fall in Between, R-Space, Lisburn, May – June 2011
Awards & Public Collections
- 2019 Arts Council Northern Ireland acquisition (Dualling, 2018)
- 2017 Mid & East Antrim Council Collection (Mark Making, Peat Charcoal, 2017)
- 2014 RDS, Design & Crafts Council of Ireland Purchase Award (Thicker than Water, 2014)
- 2014 RDS National Craft Competition, Mixed Materials Medal (Thicker than Water, 2014)
Education
- 2008-2011 University of Brighton BA(Hons) 3D Materials Practice (WMCP) First Class Hons
- 2007-2008 Camberwell College of Art London Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
- 1987-1991 Thames Polytechnic London BSc(Hons) Applied Biology 2:1
- 1980-1987 Ballymena Academy Co Antrim Northern Ireland
Curating
- Field, Frocess Yard, Ballymena August 2019
- Contained, Frocess Yard, Ballymena August 2018
- Five artists show in a byre, Frocess Yard, Ballymena August 2017
- Five artists show in a byre Frocess Yard, Ballymena August 2016
- Form Function & Food, R-Space Gallery, Lisburn, September 2016 (co-curator)
- Five artists show in a byre Frocess Yard, Ballymena August 2015
Other
- DDASF Award from University of Atypical, Belfast 2020
- Tyrone Guthrie Centre Bursary from Design and Crafts Council of Ireland 2019
- Recipient of a Jerwood Bursary 2019
- Community artist, Northern Health & Social Care Trust 2018 – 2019
- Project marketing and impact tracking, Shuttles and Shafts 2017 – 2018
- Project Artist, Arts Care, Here & Now Festival 2017 – 2018
- On Your Marks, documentation published March 2016
- Visiting Lecturer University of Brighton, January – March 2013