About the Artist

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Sarah creates abstract sculptural ceramics that defy definition, yet evoke
ideas of the body, the land (or sea)scape, organic form. Highly tactile and
often interactive, they may evoke a visceral response which is rewarded
by careful viewing. In May this year Sarah exhibited as part of Collect
Open, Collect Art Fair at Somerset House. She created a new body of
work for the show, marking a step change in her practice, exploring as-
semblages of ceramics with found objects and discarded materials, cele-
brating the random and the unpredictable to find beauty in the overlooked
and the left behind.
Sarah’s influences are the physiology of the body and organic form. She
revels in the expressivity of clay and exploits this to make suggestive, not
quite identifiable objects which appear as if they might be real. She’s in-
terested in the resonances and interconnectedness of form and texture
across the natural and manmade world. She often makes pieces that are
interactive with ‘listening tubes’, guitar wires, moveable parts, primitive
whistles etc. 





Last year Sarah was awarded a "Developing Your Creative Practice" award from Arts Council England to further investigate materials and texture, different approaches to display and the subtle uses of sound in her work. This year her activity has been based around these investigations. 

Recently elected to the Royal Society of Sculptors, Sarah creates sensuous, tactile and intriguing vessels and abstract sculptures. Each piece is individually handmade using techniques of slabbing, press-moulding and pinching.  The "Small Works" range celebrates form and a kind of pared back minimalism, whilst the Sculpture is more unruly - visceral, textured, robust, fragile. Capturing the essence of the organic, as if formed by nature, and not by human hand.

Sarah is also an accredited RD1st Coach for Visual Artists, currently running voluntary sessions to gain experience. She can also be found delivering workshops, mentoring or chairing the Artist Panel for Sheffield's Making Ways programme of Visual Arts development. 

At the end of 2018 Sarah set up, with colleague Gillian Brent, a women's sculpture collective "Material Voice." We are a peer mentoring group who aim to support and encourage each other and to exhibit together. Please see www.materialvoice.com for more information.

When not working she can be found making noise with the Sheffield-based avant-garde anti-choir Juxtavoices  http://discus-music.co.uk/juxtavoices#​ or out swimming in the wild. 

More info here: https://www.ourfaveplaces.co.uk/meet-the-locals/sarah-villeneau/

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Comments

Ian Caldwell,  Architect/Writer  "Sarah Villeneau’s lifelike ceramics are positively spooky within the decaying atmosphere of the Bargehouse" www.ianthearchitect.org/the-future-of-crafts/

James Beighton, Curator: https://www.instagram.com/p/BmK-yAhge8k/?taken-by=jamesbeighton

John Chambers: "the delicate, the beautiful and the brutal"

Peter: "like Leonardo Da Vinci anatomy drawings"

Sarah Roffey: ​"very emotive and tactile, wonderful to see."

Hilary Cartmel, artist:
​
"I find that I am reminded of the sea shore when looking at these ceramic works by Sarah Villeneau, there is something of the crustacean world there, sea anemones and strange marine life, but they are also reminiscent of something visceral, something mammalian and internal,  this is as much to do with the colour as with the form… and then there is also humour, and this is what lifts them completely into their own sphere. They sprout awkward dumpy legs and the on looker is ready for ‘it’ to turn and scamper off."

Ian Caldwell, Architect on  Craft at Top Drawer 2016 :

"It is the crafts that really shine this year with artists such as [Stephan Farnan with his “Captured Memories”, Helania Sharpley with her wireworks, Damien Borowik with his exquisite drawings and] Lynda Gault and Sarah Villeneau with their beautiful ceramics."

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Curriculum Vitae

 Exhibitions
​
Potfest by the Lake, Compton Verney, June 2023
Collect Open, Collect Art Fair, Somerset House, London 2023
Sculpture Lounge Summer Show, Holmfirth, June/July 2022
Potfest at Glynde Place, May 2022/23
Oxford Ceramics Fair, Craft Potters Association,  October 2021/2022/2023
York Ceramics Fair, Craft Potters Association, York,  September 2021
Royal Society of Sculptors Summer Show, London, 2021
Ceramics, Waterperry Gardens, Oxford, 2023
Potfest by the Lake, Compton Verney, 2023
67 York Street, London Group exhibition during London Craft Week, 2023
Collect Open, Collect Art Fair, Somerset House, London 2023
International Ceramic Arts Festival, Sasama, Japan Autumn 2019
​What is the Matter: Materials, Commodities, Narratives, Kelham Island Museum, Sheffield Autumn 2019
London Craft Week with Design Nation at Bargehouse, May 2019
Vessel, Northern Potters exhibition at Cupola Gallery, May - June 2019
​Confluence, Herrick Gallery, Mayfair, October 2018
​RAW, Omega Studio, St Leonards on Sea, October 2018
Art in the Pen, Skipton, August 2018
​Potfest in the Park, Hutton-in-the-Forest, Cumbria, July 2018
Hepworth Ceramics Fair, The Hepworth, Wakefield, May 2018
Rebel Daughters, The Point, darts, Doncaster Jan to April 2018
Handmade in Chelsea, London, November 2018
Kunsthuis Gallery, Crayke, November 2107 - February 2018
Melbourne Art and Architecture Trail, September 2018
Art in the Pen, Skipton, August, 2018
Potfest in the Park, Hutton in the Forest, July 2018
Crafts, Top Drawer, Trade Fair, Olympia, London 2017
Discerning Eye, Pall Mall Gallery, London, November 2016
Handmade in Britain, Chesea, November 2016
Innovations in Ceramic Art, Cambridge, November 2016
Art Market York, York, September 2016
Ceramics in the City, London, September 2016
Ceramic Wales, Wrexham, September 2016
Art in the Pen, Skipton, August 2016
Landmarks, Water Street Gallery, Todmorden, July - October 2016 
Shaped from the Earth, Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, June - October 2016
Solo Show, The Art House, Sheffield, February - March 2016 
The Beast Within, Exchange Place Studios, Sheffield, May 2016
Top Drawer, Olympia, London, selected, January 2016
​Presents/Presence, Cupola Gallery, Sheffield, selected, Christmas 2015
​Innovations in Ceramic Art, Cambridge, selected, October 2015 
Ceramics in the City, London, selected, September 2015
Earth and Fire, Rufford, selected, One year on shared stall, June 2015
Unseen, Unsung, Church View, Doncaster, Joint exhibition with painter Jayne Cooper, July 2015 Curated by the artists.
Unpacking a Potted History, Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery, Summer 2015 Curated by myself and colleague Adele Howitt. (Creative People and Places, Arts Council funding)
3 @ 11, Studio Eleven, Hull Joint exhibition, painting and sculpture, May – June 2015 Curated by the artists.
Ceramics in the City, London, selected, September 2014
Earth and Fire (student stand/NPA) Rufford, selected, June 2012/13/14
The Discerning Eye, The Mall Gallery, London, selected exhibition, November 2013
Cupola Gallery, Sheffield, selected exhibition, Christmas 2013
Studio Eleven, Northern Potters Association selected Exhibition, October 2012
Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield, PW10, selected exhibition, November 2011
Sadirac Ceramics Festival, Bergerac, France, June 2010
Northern Potters, Thoresby Gallery, Thoresby, July 2010
Earth and Fire, NPA, Rufford, selected,  June 2010
Studio Pottery Exhibition, British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke-on-Trent, Autumn 2009
Sculpture Exhibition, Harlequin Gallery, Greenwich, London, selected, June 2008
“Eight”, Collaborative Exhibition, The Workstation, Sheffield, 2006
Northern Fire 1 and Northern Fire 2, Oxo Tower Gallery, London, 2005/2007

Galleries

Gallery 6, 6 Stodman St, Newark NG24 1AN
Fitch and Fellows, 18 Butter Market, Thame OX9 3EP
https://freeformsnyc.com/Upper Nyack, NY, USA

Education

2012 – 2014  MA Studio Ceramics p/t, Loughborough University
1997 – MA Art and Design, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds
1992 – Diploma of Higher Education, Art and Craft Studies –Coventry Polytechnic
1987 – Certificate in Ceramics – Sir John Cass School of Art, Whitechapel, London
1981 –  BA Hons (Joint) English and French, Liverpool University


Professional Affiliations

Selected member of the Royal Society of Sculptors
Selected member of Craft Potters Association
Selected member of Artcan
Selected member of Find a Maker

Awards

London Potters Makers Award - 1st Runner-up
DYCP Arts Council Award 2023
Doncaster Creates Award 2020
ACE Project Grant Material Voice Collective June 2019
DYCP Arts Council Award 2018
Making Ways Research and Development Award 2018
​ Your Creative Practice Award, Arts Council England, 2018
Sheffield Making Ways, R & D funding 2018
AN The Artist Information Company, Bursary for Visual Arts Coaching course 2018
Creative People and Places, Doncaster, 2013 Public commission
Craft Pottery Charitable Trust £500 award for purchase of portable wheel
ACE Grants for the Arts  2013 “The Art Market” collaboration
Humber Learning Consortium 2012 Community Art workshops
Scholarship Loughborough University School of the Arts 2012
ACE Grants for the Arts 2012 test-firing smokeless kiln
NAN Futuristic Bursary 2011 International Artist collaboration
ACE Grants for the Arts 2011 Kiln-buuilding Masterclass at ICS Hungary
Humber Learning Consortium Grant 2009 community workshops
ACE Research and Development Award,  2005

Professional Experience
2024 - Selected Artist in Residence, Spain Joya: arte + ecología / AiR
2023 - 2024 Sound Collaboration with Professor Adrain Moore, Electroacoustic Department, Sheffield University
1998 - ongoing Maker/Creative Practitioner /Workshop Leader/Trainer/Coach
2022 - Arts and Ecology Researcher, Symbiosis, Artbomb 2022 Doncaster
2020 - 2021 - “The Ground Beneath Our Feet” Lockdown project with Asylum Seekers funded by Doncaster Creates https://doncastercreates.org/Birdsong-Artist-Updates
2020 - Bags of Creativity Designer, IVE Lockdown project
November 2018 - 2021- co-founder Material Voice collective of 7 Sheffield based female sculptors 
June 2018 - Accredited RD1st Coach for Visual Artists
​February 2018- Chair, Artist Panel, Making Ways, a three year project run by Sheffield Consortium to support artistic talent and leadership in the Visual Arts in Sheffield
September 2016 - 2021 Associate Lecturer Ceramics (part time), Sheffield College, Sheffield
Spring 2016 - Creative Practitioner Year of Making Heritage Lottery Fund working with women from deprived communities looking at Sheffield Heritage through ceramic making
Autumn 2013 – Spring 2015 Commission Right Up Our Street, Unpacking a Potted History, Mexborough
Summer 2013 – Summer 2015 “The Art Market” Artist collaboration Doncaster, ACE
July 2012 – Moved studio to The Sow’s Ear, The Piggery, Doncaster
2012 – Founder and Creative Director Manor Stokes smokeless wood-firing group. Built a smokeless wood-fired kiln in Sheffield and managed a community wood-firing group
2011 – Network Co-ordinator/ Consultant Philosophical Enquiry in Schools
2009 ongoing  Co-Founder and Creative Director Art of Interaction
2005 – 2011 Creative Practitioner/Agent, Creative Partnerships, South Yorkshire
2008 – Consultant, Arts Council Research into the arts in PRUs.
2006 – Moved studio to Persistence Works, Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield
2005 – 2006  Artist in Residence, The Hill Primary School, Thurnscoe, Barnsley.
1998 ongoing – Mentor to newly qualified artists
1998 ongoing – Self-employed Ceramic Artist, Doncaster/Sheffield.
1998 ongoing – Freelance Workshop Leader in Visual Arts and Trainer
​1997 – 2001 Lecturer (part-time), Doncaster College. Ceramics and Life-drawing.