Image: Teodora Herczog
Overview
- b. London, England, 1968.
- Professional Artist since 2013.
- RWA Academician and elected Royal Society of Sculptors member.
- 20+ year career in arts, heritage and conservation sectors, including managerial and consultancy roles with some of the leading charities in the U.K. including the National Trust, Natural History Museum and establishing the historic archive of pioneering British designer, Robert Welch (RDI).
Biography
Amanda Chambers is a British multi-disciplinary artist working in sculpture, ceramics, music, drawing, photography and printmaking. She is an RWA Academician and an elected member of the Royal Society of Sculptors. She regularly gives talks about her work, and is currently practising in the UK and Japan.
In 2017 she was awarded an Arts Council England grant to develop her work in clay. This experimental period led to the production of ambitious large scale ceramic drawings notably those inspired by the life of computer scientist, Alan Turing. Her ceramics research has been enhanced further through her residencies in Japan at Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park.
Amanda has exhibited her work internationally, including her sculpture installation inspired by the Syrian crisis, Exhume, which was commissioned by Bergen University for the exhibition 'Journeys to Tadmor' in Norway in 2017. The work subsequently received praise from the British Museum and Professor Mary Beard.
In October 2018, she returned to Japan, after her first residency in 2017, to embark on a project inspired by the trees that survived the atomic bomb in Hiroshima - the ‘Hibaku Jumoku’. The work was produced and exhibited at Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park (SCCP). A piece from the exhibition is now held in the permanent collection at SCCP.
In 2019 she was selected for the RWA Sculpture Open, elected as an RWA Academician and a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors. Her work is now held in private and Museum collections in the U.K. and Japan and has been published around the world.
In 2020 Amanda returned to Shigaraki for three months to create a large scale outdoor ceramic sculpture - Akai Mori (Red Forest), and a special commission for Green Legacy Hiroshima to commemorate 75 years since the atomic bombing of Japan.
In 2022 she was invited to exhibit at the Japanese Embassy in London and also held a solo exhibition at the newly restored Dorset Museum.
In 2023 Amanda held a solo exhibition in Japan and later that year travelled to New Mexico to research the origins of the first nuclear bomb at Los Alamos. The resulting work ‘Behind General Groves’s Golden Teeth’ is now on show at the RWA until 12th May 2024.
Artist Statement
My work primarily considers our relationship to the past. I place particular emphasis on proximity, and how the use of handmade processes (often invented, traditional or low tech) creates an intimacy between the distant historical subject and the contemporary viewer. In this way I give physical form to the assertion by the author Hilary Mantel that, 'the past is not behind us, it is alongside'. Subjects may often examine issues of conflict: societal, political or environmental.
Affiliations
Royal West of England Academy - Elected Academician
Royal Society of Sculptors - Elected Member
Forthcoming
Research and exhibitions in Japan 2024.
Current exhibition
‘Dreaming in Fire’ (invitation group exhibition) - Royal West of England Academy, U.K. - March 26th - May 12th 2024.
Recent exhibitions (selected)
2023 - Royal West of England Academy Open Exhibition - 170th Annual Open Exhibition.
2023 - Oxford University (Harris Manchester College) - Touring group exhibition from the Japanese Embassy, ‘Ash, Ember, Flame’.
2023 - Shigaraki Share Studio Gallery, Japan - residency and solo exhibition - ‘Inhume’.
2022 - Royal West of England Academy - 169th Annual Open Exhibition.
2022 - Japanese Embassy, London (Group exhibition) ‘Ash, Ember, Flame’.
2022 - Dorset County Museum, Dorchester (Solo exhibition) ‘Quiet Revolutions’.
2021 - Royal West of England Academy - 168th Annual Open Exhibition.
2020 - White Conduit Projects, London - RAISE | RAZE (Solo exhibition).
2020 - Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan (Solo exhibition).
2020 - White Conduit Projects, London - ‘Touching Transcendence’ (Group exhibition).
2020 - London Art Fair .
2019 - Royal West of England Academy (RWA) Academician Candidate Exhibition
2019 - Royal West of England Academy (RWA) Sculpture Open Exhibition.
2018 - Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan (Solo exhibition).
Commissions
2020 - Green Legacy Hiroshima, Japan - 100 ceramic works to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
2017 - Exhume commissioned by Bergen University in Norway for the exhibition ‘Journeys to Tadmor (Palmyra)’, Bryggens Museum, Bergen, Norway (funded by Research Council of Norway) - 30 June - 17 September 2017.
Collections
Oxford University - Harris Manchester College, U.K.
Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan.
Royal West of England Academy (RWA), U.K.
Dorset Museum, U.K.
Residencies
2023 - SSS Studio - Shigaraki - Shiga Prefecture, Japan.
2022 - SSS Studio - Shigaraki - Shiga Prefecture, Japan.
2020 - Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park – Shiga Prefecture, Japan.
2018 - Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park – Shiga Prefecture, Japan.
2017 - Bryggens Museum - Bergen, Norway.
2017 - Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park – Shiga Prefecture, Japan.
2004 - Bristol Cathedral.
Publications (selected)
Royal West of England Academy (RWA) - ‘This is Me’ (Catalogue), 2022
Daiwa Foundation - Shigaraki Residency June 2020
Royal West of England Academy - A Floating Circle - Artists in Lockdown June 2020
Green Legacy Hiroshima - ‘Partners in Profile’ interview 2019
RWA Floating Circle - Q&A, Aug 2019.
Green Legacy Hiroshima - ‘In search of Hiroshima’s Survivor Trees’, Dec 2018.
CFile Online, U.S.A. - Stilboestrol, August 2018.
Ceramic Review 289 – Elemental Journeys – Japanese Residencies, Jan/ Feb 2018.
Bryggens Museum, Bergen, Norway - ‘Journeys to Tadmor’ (Catalogue), June 2017.
Daiwa Foundation - Annual Review 2016/2017.
Ceramic Workshop No.85 Seikondo Shinkansha, Japan, May 2017.
Ceramic Review 279 – 'Quiet Revolutions', May / June 2016.
Sylvia Townsend Warner Journal – 'Quiet Revolutions' (UCL Press), June 2016
Centre for Ceramic Art (CoCA), Rethink Ceramic Art – 'Exhume' - 2016.
Awards / Grants / Prizes / Sponsorship
2020 - Inside Japan - Residency Sponsorship.
2017 – 2020 - Arts Council England – Ceramics Research and Development.
2017 - Daiwa Foundation – Japan Residency Grant Award.
2017 - Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation - Japan Residency Grant Award.
Art Education
1987 – 1990 B.A. (Hons) Fine Art, Newport School of Art, Gwent College of Higher Education.
1986 – 1987 Art and Design Foundation, Mid Warwickshire College of Further Education.
Talks / Lectures / Teaching (selected)
Royal West of England Academy - Friends of RWA Artist Talk (1st March 2023).
Guest Lecturer at U.W.E (University of the West of England) - MSc Creative Technology (2019 / 2020).
Bath College - Visiting Speaker (14 Nov 2019).
Royal West of England Academy of Arts (RWA) Artist Network - Artist Talk - ‘The Survivor Trees of Hiroshima’ (29 April 2019).
UWE MSc Creative Technology - Guest Lecturer (March - May 2019).
UWE MA Design - Visiting Lecturer and Workshop (3 May 2018).
Spike Island Associates - Artist Talk - 'Elemental Journey' – Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park' (28 March 2018).
Royal West of England Academy of Arts (RWA) - After Hours - Experimental drawing workshop ( 21 Nov 2017).
Daiwa Foundation – Artist Talk - 'Elemental Journey' – Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park' (18 Oct 2017).
Royal West of England Academy of Arts (RWA) Artist Network – Artist Talk - 'Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park' (14 Aug 2017).
Bryggens Museum, Bergen, Norway - Launch Q&A - 'Journeys to Tadmor' exhibition - (30 June 2017).
Projects and Collaborations
Oxford University Anagama Project (2017 - present).
Quiet Revolutions – Dorset County Museum / Imperial War Museum (2015).
Personal Instrument, Historical Legacy – with Tasmin Little O.B.E. (2012).
Great Chalfield Manor, National Trust – research and work with medieval masons' marks (2011/12).
Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum – research and work with WW1 collection (2011).
Britten and Pears Foundation (The Red House) – working with Benjamin Britten's collection (2006).
La Vengeance du Gibier - Bodleian Library, Oxford University – researching the medieval manuscript The Master of Game at Duke Humfries Library (2006).
Natural History Museum – working with the Mineralogy Department's meteorite collection (2005).
Contact
info@amandachambers.co.uk
+44 (0) 777 594 7285