Welcome to my gallery site, I'm Keziah Wilkes, a fine art graduate currently living and working in East Sussex. As well as continually developing own studio practise I also work as an art teacher, a job I absolutely love. I specialise in sculpture and painting, producing work in response to my surroundings, ranging from tactile abstract stone pieces inspired by my travels, to figurative bronze work through which I have explored human interaction.
I am fascinated by human behaviour both social and physical. Something as simple and everyday as a hug can hold within it profound personal significance and emotional investment, yet the experience is so brief; transient by its very nature. In my sculptures, I try to explore the traces of human experience and interactions, for example the connections between us as we embrace. These can convey so much; sorrow, joy, passion, seduction, consolation, pride, exaltation and anger. My stone work is equally tactile and yet more instinctive, my technical approach is responsive to the stone itself, I rarely cut away at the stone, preferring to be guided by the natural form and fissures within it. As with all my 3D work my intention is to have the future owner of the piece I make, fall in love with the feel of it, I am a firm believer in exploring through touch. Like most creative people I work with I have many strings to by bow and consider myself a versatile artist who acquires new skills with relative speed and incorporate them into my practise. Although I specialised in 3D media at University and primarily consider myself a sculptor, I have been constantly intrigued by the characters I have encountered on my travels, on the train, in the pub. These faces have been part of my creative practise and continue to inspire me to record their fleeting expressions. I have a great many portraits, sketches of lives I know nothing about, records of a moment in time. It's and interesting concept to try to capture a persons character in a few moments, so if you find yourself my subject unexpectedly on a bus or train one day, be assured it is only because you have a great face and I craved the challege of recording it!
Education and Qualifications NQT Uckfield Community Technology College University of Brighton B.A. First Class Honours |
