Laura Ford (born 6 February 1961) in Cardiff, Wales is a British

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

Early life

Growing up in a travelling fairground family, Ford was educated at

Stonar School Stonar School, founded in 1895, is a non-denominational UK independent day and boarding school, at Cottles Park, near Atworth, Wiltshire, south-west England. The school occupies 80 acres of parkland and gardens in a location about 8 miles from ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, and then at

Bath Academy of Art Bath School of Art and Design is an art college in Bath, England, now known separately as Bath School of Art and Bath School of Design. It forms part of the Bath Spa University whose main campus is located a few miles from the City at Newton P ...

from 1978 to 1982, while spending a term at the

Cooper Union School of Art The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

in New York City. In 1982 she was invited to take part in the annual

New Contemporaries New Contemporaries is an organisation in the UK that works to support emerging artists at the beginning of their careers by introducing them to the visual arts sector and to the public through a variety of platforms, including an annual exhibition ...

exhibition at the

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...

and then studied at the

Chelsea School of Art Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation. It offers further and higher educat ...

from 1982 to 1983.

Work

Ford has lived and worked in London since 1982 and has been identified with the New British Sculpture movement since her participation in the 1983 survey exhibition The Sculpture Show at the

Serpentine Gallery The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Central London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Gallery, ...

and

The Hayward The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the R ...

, as well as participating in the British Art Show 5 in 2000. left, Weeping Girls Marcello Spinelli wrote (British Art Show 5) "Ford’s creatures are faithful representations of fantasy and, at times, a nightmarish imagination. With their bitter-sweet, menacing and endearing qualities, her stuffed animals and dolls appeal to childhood memories and inhabit a world we immediately recognize as somewhat familiar." Her work is represented in many public collections including; the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, the

Government Art Collection The Government Art Collection (GAC) is the collection of artworks owned by the UK government and administered by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The GAC's artworks are used to decorate major government buildings in t ...

, Potteries Museum, National Museums and Gallery of Wales; Museum of Modern Art, University of Iowa; the

Arts Council of Great Britain The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council (l ...

; the

Contemporary Art Society The Contemporary Art Society (CAS) is an independent charity that champions the collecting of outstanding contemporary art and craft for UK museum collections. Since its founding in 1910 the organisation has donated over 10,000 works to museums ...

;

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...

;

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.The New Art Gallery Walsall The New Art Gallery Walsall is a modern and contemporary art gallery sited in the centre of the West Midlands town of Walsall, England. It was built with £21 million of public funding, including £15.75 million from the UK National Lottery and ...

, The Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, The Meijier Gardens, Grand Rapids USA, and The Gateway Foundation, St. Louis. She has exhibited widely including; Solo, "2012 Days of Judgment", Kulturzentrum Englische Kirche und Galerie Scheffel, Bad Homburg, and The New Art Centre, Roche Court, UK, 2011 Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, MI, USA, 2007, "Rag and Bone",

Turner Contemporary Turner Contemporary is one of the UK’s leading contemporary art galleries. Celebrating Margate’s connection with the painter J.M.W. Turner (1775 – 1851), an artist who believed that art could be an agent of change, its year-round exhibition ...

, Margate, 2006 "Armour Boys", Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 2004, "Wreckers", Beaconsfield, London, 2003, Ford "Headthinkers", Houldsworth Gallery, Cork Street. 2002, "The Great Indoors", Salamanca Centre of Contemporary Art, Spain, 1998,

Camden Arts Centre Camden Art Centre (formerly known as Hampstead Arts Centre until 1967 and Camden Arts Centre until 2020) is a contemporary art gallery in the London Borough of Camden, England that hosts temporary exhibitions and educational outreach projects. T ...

, London (with Jacqui Poncelet) Group 2011 with

Magdalena Abakanowicz Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz-Kosmowska (20 June 1930 – 20 April 2017) was a Polish sculptor and fiber artist. She was known for her use of textiles as a sculptural medium and her outdoor installations. She is widely regarded as one of Poland ...

, at the Industriemuseum Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Bocholt, Germany, 2005,

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

for Wales, 2004 "Into My World: Recent British Sculpture", Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Connecticut, USA, with Matt Franks,

Roger Hiorns Roger Hiorns (born 1975) is a British Contemporary artist based in London. His primary media is sculpture and installation, using a wide variety of materials, including metals, wood and plastics. He also works in the media of video and photograp ...

, James Ireland, Jim Lambie, and Mike Nelson.

Academic career

Between 1983 and 1995 Ford was a lecturer at

, Senior Lecturer at

Middlesex University Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated MDX) is a public research university in Hendon, northwest London, England. The name of the university is taken from its location within the historic county boundaries ...

, also teaching extensively at most London art schools.

Public commissions

* 2014 Southmeads Hospital Bristol, * 2012 University Hospital Heidelberg Germany, * 2009 City Stockholm, Sweden, * 2007 'Look Ahead', Short Term Housing Project, * 2006 ‘Weeping Girls’ Jupiter Artland, * 2002 Swiss Cottage Children’s Library, London, * 2001-02 Swiss Cottage Children’s Library, London * 1998 British High Commission, Ottawa * 1997 Surrey Docks/Dockland Development Agency * 1993 'Chiltern Sculpture Trail', Oxford * 1989-90 West Bromwich Town Centre, WBC/PADT

Gallery

File:Days of Judgement, Laura Ford, 2012.jpeg, 'Days of Judgement', 2012 File:'Armour Boys'.jpg, 'Armour Boys' Houldsworth Gallery, 2006 File:'Armour Boys' Sweden.jpg, 'Armour Boys', (installed at Sculpture in Pilane, Sweden) 2006 File:'Rag and Bone', Laura Ford, Stockholm, 1998.jpeg, 'Rag and Bone', Stockholm, 1998 File:'Rag and Bone', Laura Ford, 2007.jpeg, 'Rag and Bone', 2007 File:'Headthinkers'.jpg, Houldsworth Gallery, London 2003 File:'Moose', Laura Ford, 1998.jpeg, 'Moose', 1998 File:LauraFord.ChinaCats.1.jpg, China Cats

Personal life

Ford lives and works in Camden alongside her husband, the sculptor Andrew Sabin, and their three children.

Notes and reference

External links

Grizedale Sculpture Laura Ford

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Laura 1961 births Living people 20th-century British sculptors 21st-century British sculptors 20th-century Welsh women artists 21st-century Welsh women artists Alumni of Bath School of Art and Design Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts Artists from Cardiff Welsh contemporary artists Welsh women sculptors