Kirsty Brooks

ARTISTS BACKGROUND

Kirsty Brooks is an architectural glass artist based in Maidenhead, Berkshire. She studied at foundation level at Wimbledon College of Art and graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with a BA (Hons) in architectural glass and painting. After graduating and moving to London, Kirsty worked for a range of art consultants, galleries and glass studios. In 1998 she won her first major commission for a restaurant in Covent Garden and began to develop her work in a responsive site specific way.

Initially creating layered composites from blown, painted and kiln formed elements, her work has developed to encompass photography, screen printing and digital manipulation. Kirsty has won a variety of commissions and created artworks for a wide range of environments. She works collaboratively with architectural teams and develops designs by working closely with clients, carrying out workshops, research and consultation sessions.

ARTISTS STATEMENT

As an architectural glass artist, I work mostly to commission, responding to and creating a dialogue with the space in question. Screens, canopies, windows, walls or feature panels are produced for a variety of corporate, public and private locations.

Whilst developing ideas, I work with photography as a means of accurately capturing an object, atmosphere or quality of light. My work utilises a combination of imagery and ideas drawn from the surrounding environment. I photograph or scan objects and textures and digitally manipulate and overlay them, playing with the scale and its eventual impact. The resulting composites are digitally printed onto film or screen-printed, using glass enamels onto large sheets of float glass. These are often layered or obscured with textured, sandblasted and acid-etched panels. These sheets of glass are either suspended using tensile cables or framed within the fabric of the building.

Each piece is created specifically for the surrounding architecture and location and incorporates ideas relating to the function of the building and its aesthetic qualities. Reflecting and magnifying the often unexamined details and overall qualities of the location leads to a 'rooted' artwork, achieving a synthesis with its surroundings.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

'Glass, Light and Space', Koukan Gallery, London, 2008
'Treading the Boards', Phoenix Gallery, Grand Opera House, Belfast (solo), 2008
'Designers' Block', Shoreditch High Street, London, 2005
'Fragile Cargo' Anglo Hungarian Glass – Touring: Budapest, Kaposvar, St Helens, London, Bruges, Tilburg, 2004-5
'Nou Vitrall', College of Architects and Technical Engineers, Barcelona, 2003
'Henley Arts and Music Festival', Henley, Oxfordshire, 2002
'Connections', Espai Vidre Gallery, Barcelona, Spain, 2002
'ART 2002', Business Design Centre, Islington, London, 2002
'Tracks' Platform for Art, Gloucester Road Tube Station, London,2001
'Sub–Urban Glass', Platform for Art, Gloucester Road Tube Station,London, 2000
'New London Glass', Candid Arts Centre, London,1998

CONTACT

architecturalglass@gmail.com

www.kirstybrooks.co.uk
www.axisweb.org/artist/kirstybrooks ARTIST

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