Sophie MccGwire artist

Grounded in the physical properties of chosen materials, Sophie Orde’s approach in her work is inspired by the marks of extraction from their foundations, particularly a broken edge or a cracked surface. Formed around 140 million years ago, the history of raw stone remains central, allowing for dialogue between the complexities of current environmental, social and political challenges, within the context of an evolvement of geological history often referred to as Deep Time. Using abstraction or the figure, as the subject demands, she plays with the contrasts – transience/permanence, heaviness/lightness, softness/hardness.   

The stone is worked with traditional hammer and chisels or with an air-hammer (pneumatic chisel) on harder stones. The marks they leave hold the energy and process of finding subjects within the stone. The presence of such marks often remain to keep that process visible and alive. After chiselling, the stones are shaped with various riflers and then sandpaper. Each of these processes brings out a different quality of the stone.

Sophie studied Art History at University College London and sculpture at Heatherleys School of Art. She studied at Pietrasanta Carving School, Tuscany; studied under Michael Grimaldi at Studio 126, New York; the Art Students League, New York; worked inside a casting factory in Berlin, and apprenticed for renowned monumental sculptor Vivien Mallock. Sophie has recently completed a six-month residency at Re:Centre and has exhibited in several group exhibitions in London. She has a studio in West London and is a member of the Pollen Collective.