Contact:
Email
Follow: Instagram
Fiona Curran (b.1971 Manchester) read Philosophy at the University of Manchester before studying at Manchester School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art, she teaches at the Royal College of Art in London and works from her studio in Cambridgeshire.
Curran’s practice is rooted in painting but moves outwards to explore collage and the use of an expanded range of materials and processes, including textiles and site-specific installation. Her work is about an experience of landscape beyond the scenic “view,” towards a broader sense of place that is more attuned to feeling, memory and attention. Curran is also interested in the ways that screen-based technologies are impacting our embodied engagement with our environment. The presence of a heightened colour palette, alongside assembled and collaged surfaces, seeks to both mimic and counter the fractured, illuminated and seductive spaces of the screen, immersing the viewer in a physical and material engagement with colour and space. Curran describes her relationship to colour as:
“A space that I can enter and build from, sometimes literally in terms of layered or three-dimensional forms and structures, but also in terms of a broader relationship with the world as I experience it. Colour functions as a placeholder, a sensory record of an encounter. It is both an organisation and a condensation of feeling and a marker or trace, like an afterglow that continues to travel beyond the original moment. I like to think of colour in this way, not simply in visual terms, but as a physical presence that we move through continuously. In this sense colour becomes a landscape.”
CV
Commissions
The Slack Shallows, 5 Howick Place, London, UK, Commissioned by HS Projects. (2022)
Bright shadows point, Eddington, Cambridge. Commissioned by the Contemporary Art Society and Locke for Turing Locke. (2021)
Your sweetest empire is to please, National Trust Gibside, Gateshead. Commissioned by Newcastle University and The National Trust with support from the AHRC. (2018) (Watch film here)
The grass seemed darker than ever, Kielder Castle, Kielder Forest, Northumberland, commissioned by Kielder Art & Architecture, Kielder Water & Development Trust and Forestry Commission England, (2016)
An accident looking for somewhere to happen, Art Across the City, Swansea, Wales, commissioned by Locws International (2012)
A Delicious Garden, Danson House, Bexleyheath, London, commissioned by The Crafts Council and Bexleyheath Development Trust , (2012)
This time next year things are going to be different, Tatton Park Biennial, Tatton Park, Cheshire, commissioned by Parabola (Danielle Arnaud and Jordan Kaplan), (2010) Awarded a RIBA small projects award.
The World Seen from inside, The Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, London, commissioned by Vital Arts, (2009).
Solo Exhibitions
Static, UHArts, the University of Hertfordshire, UK (2023)
Jump Cut, Still Life, Broadway Gallery, Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, UK (2021) (Read exhibition text by Maggie Gray here)
Beach Fatigue, Carslaw St*Lukes, London, UK (2013) (Read exhibition text by Kit Hammonds here)
Waiting For The Perfect View, Touchstones, Rochdale, Manchester, UK, (2012)
Too Many Waterfalls, Hive Gallery, Barnsley, Yorkshire, UK, (2010)
Assembly, Chapter Gallery, Cardiff. Wales, UK, (2010)
The World Is Larger In Summer, MAC, Birmingham, UK, (2007)
Notes on Camouflage, Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK, (2007).
Selected Group Exhibitions
House Guests, David Parr House, Cambridge (2023); Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2023); Lovely View, Way Out East Gallery, University of East London, London (2022); Continuities, Paul Hughes Fine Arts, Wiltshire (2021); AN 40th Birthday Edition with Slow Install, Online, (2021); The Poetics of Place, UHArts, Hertfordshire (2020); Weave It! 100 Years of Bauhaus, Decorating Dissidence, London (2019); Parade, Broadway Gallery, Letchworth Garden City (2019); Out of Place, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle (2019); Enough is Definitely Enough, General Practice, Lincoln and Ocean’s Apart, Salford (2019); Everything, Assembly Point, London (2018); Material Resistance, M100, Odense, Denmark and Sluice Exchange, Berlin (2018); Exeter Contemporary, Phoenix Gallery, Exeter, (2017); Creekside open part 2 (selected by Alison Wilding), APT Gallery, London (2017); Love, Peace and Happiness, Menier Gallery, London (2017); MA/MFA/PhD Show, Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK, (2016) ; Other, Royal College of Art, London, UK, (2016); No Matter, New Matter, Ed.Varie, New York, USA, (2015); Signal Failure (Squared), Safe House, London, UK, (2015); Mostyn Open 19, Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales, UK (2015); Finite Project Altered When Open, David Dale Gallery, Glasgow, UK (2015); Promise of Palm Trees, Breese Little, London, UK (2015); Detail, H Project Space, Bangkok, Thailand, Transition Gallery, London, UK, Usher Gallery, Lincoln, UK, (2014); Situation, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia, (2014); Interchange Junctions, Howick Place, London, UK (2014); Riff, Baltic 39, Newcastle, UK, (2013); Easy Does It, David Dale Gallery, Glasgow, Aid & Abet, Cambridge, Supercollider, Blackpool, UK, (2013); Common People, Ti Pi Tin, London, UK, (2013); Signal Failure, Legion TV, London, UK, (2013); Untitled, Miami Beach, Miami, USA (with Carslaw St* Lukes), (2012); Crocodiles With A Second Skin Thrash, Over + Out, Lincoln, (2012); Making Space, Slade School of Fine Art Research Centre, Woburn Square, London (2012);Translate/Transcribe, Central House of Artists, Moscow. Russia, (2011); We Are All In This Together, Bureau, Manchester, (2011); Surplus to Requirements? Slade School of Fine Art Research Centre, Woburn Square, London (2011); London Art Fair Projects, The Florence Trust (2011); Guasch-Coranty International Painting Prize, Centro de Arte Tecla Sala Barcelona, Spain (2010); Northern Stars,The Blade Factory, A Foundation, Liverpool, (2010); Paint, Beldam Gallery, Brunel University, London, (2010); London Art Fair, Paul Stolper Gallery, London, (2010); FringeMK Painting Prize, Middleton Hall, Milton Keynes (2009); Creekside Open (Part 1) Selected by Jenni Lomax, A.P.T Gallery, London (2009); Coller-Elective, Arena Gallery, Liverpool (2009); Pairs, Paul Stolper Gallery, London (2009); London Art Fair, Paul Stolper Gallery, London (2009); Swap/Vaihto, Bureau, Manchester and The Cable Factory, Helsinki. Finland (2008); Future 50, Project Space Leeds, Leeds (2008).
Talks
Tate, Liverpool; MACBA, Barcelona, Spain; University of Leeds; University of the Creative Arts, Farnham; University of the Creative Arts, Canterbury; Newcastle University; Goldsmiths, University of London; Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden; Central St.Martins, London; RMIT, Melbourne, Australia; The University of Westminster, London; The Bartlett School of Architecture, London; Parsons New School of Design, New York; Plymouth College of Art; Arts & Heritage ; The University of Oxford; University of Derby; University of Lincoln; University of Chichester; The University of Hertfordshire; The Broadway Gallery, Letchworth Garden City; Trust New Art, The National Trust; The Courtauld Institute of Art, London; The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
Public Collections
Manchester Art Gallery; Brunel University; The Royal London Hospital; Paintings in Hospitals; The University of Hertfordshire
Awards
QEST award (2019)
Jean Spenser and Malcolm Hughes Bursary, Slade School of Fine Art (2012)
RIBA MSA small project award for the Tatton Park Biennial project, (2011)
Residency at The Florence Trust, London, UK, (2008)
Research and Development Award from the Arts Council, England, (2004).
Press
Art Fictions Podcast, Interview with Jillian Knipe, April 2021
The World is Larger in Summer, Interview in Ambit Magazine, Issue 233. July 2018.
Dave Pritchard, Review of Out of Place, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle, Corridor 8, August 2019
Dave Pritchard, Fiona Curran & Andrew Burton: Contemporary Art at Gibside, Corridor 8. June 2018.
Lara Eggleton, Follies, Art Monthly, Issue 417. June 2018
Louise Lee, Promise of Palm Trees, Breese Little, This is Tomorrow. February 2015
Robert Clark , RIFF/T, Baltic 39, The Guardian Guide. January 2014
Gabriel Coxhead, Beach Fatigue, Carslaw St* Lukes, Modern Painters. January 2014
Time Out London, Beach Fatigue , November 2013
CultureCritic, Beach Fatigue,. October 2013
Joe Turnbull, Beach Fatigue, The Upcoming. October 2013.
Anne Charnock, Art's Love Affair With JG Ballard, The Huffington Post. October, 2013.
David Hayley, Review of Tatton Park Biennial. AN Magazine. 28th June 2010.
David Lillington, Review of Tatton Park Biennial, Eye Contact, 6th July 2010.
Kevin Hunt, review of Coller Elective, Arena Gallery, Liverpool. AN Magazine, May 2009.
Matt Price, Review of The World is Larger in Summer, MAC Birmingham. AN Magazine. 20th December 2007
Follow: Instagram
Fiona Curran (b.1971 Manchester) read Philosophy at the University of Manchester before studying at Manchester School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art, she teaches at the Royal College of Art in London and works from her studio in Cambridgeshire.
Curran’s practice is rooted in painting but moves outwards to explore collage and the use of an expanded range of materials and processes, including textiles and site-specific installation. Her work is about an experience of landscape beyond the scenic “view,” towards a broader sense of place that is more attuned to feeling, memory and attention. Curran is also interested in the ways that screen-based technologies are impacting our embodied engagement with our environment. The presence of a heightened colour palette, alongside assembled and collaged surfaces, seeks to both mimic and counter the fractured, illuminated and seductive spaces of the screen, immersing the viewer in a physical and material engagement with colour and space. Curran describes her relationship to colour as:
“A space that I can enter and build from, sometimes literally in terms of layered or three-dimensional forms and structures, but also in terms of a broader relationship with the world as I experience it. Colour functions as a placeholder, a sensory record of an encounter. It is both an organisation and a condensation of feeling and a marker or trace, like an afterglow that continues to travel beyond the original moment. I like to think of colour in this way, not simply in visual terms, but as a physical presence that we move through continuously. In this sense colour becomes a landscape.”
CV
Commissions
The Slack Shallows, 5 Howick Place, London, UK, Commissioned by HS Projects. (2022)
Bright shadows point, Eddington, Cambridge. Commissioned by the Contemporary Art Society and Locke for Turing Locke. (2021)
Your sweetest empire is to please, National Trust Gibside, Gateshead. Commissioned by Newcastle University and The National Trust with support from the AHRC. (2018) (Watch film here)
The grass seemed darker than ever, Kielder Castle, Kielder Forest, Northumberland, commissioned by Kielder Art & Architecture, Kielder Water & Development Trust and Forestry Commission England, (2016)
An accident looking for somewhere to happen, Art Across the City, Swansea, Wales, commissioned by Locws International (2012)
A Delicious Garden, Danson House, Bexleyheath, London, commissioned by The Crafts Council and Bexleyheath Development Trust , (2012)
This time next year things are going to be different, Tatton Park Biennial, Tatton Park, Cheshire, commissioned by Parabola (Danielle Arnaud and Jordan Kaplan), (2010) Awarded a RIBA small projects award.
The World Seen from inside, The Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, London, commissioned by Vital Arts, (2009).
Solo Exhibitions
Static, UHArts, the University of Hertfordshire, UK (2023)
Jump Cut, Still Life, Broadway Gallery, Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, UK (2021) (Read exhibition text by Maggie Gray here)
Beach Fatigue, Carslaw St*Lukes, London, UK (2013) (Read exhibition text by Kit Hammonds here)
Waiting For The Perfect View, Touchstones, Rochdale, Manchester, UK, (2012)
Too Many Waterfalls, Hive Gallery, Barnsley, Yorkshire, UK, (2010)
Assembly, Chapter Gallery, Cardiff. Wales, UK, (2010)
The World Is Larger In Summer, MAC, Birmingham, UK, (2007)
Notes on Camouflage, Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK, (2007).
Selected Group Exhibitions
House Guests, David Parr House, Cambridge (2023); Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2023); Lovely View, Way Out East Gallery, University of East London, London (2022); Continuities, Paul Hughes Fine Arts, Wiltshire (2021); AN 40th Birthday Edition with Slow Install, Online, (2021); The Poetics of Place, UHArts, Hertfordshire (2020); Weave It! 100 Years of Bauhaus, Decorating Dissidence, London (2019); Parade, Broadway Gallery, Letchworth Garden City (2019); Out of Place, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle (2019); Enough is Definitely Enough, General Practice, Lincoln and Ocean’s Apart, Salford (2019); Everything, Assembly Point, London (2018); Material Resistance, M100, Odense, Denmark and Sluice Exchange, Berlin (2018); Exeter Contemporary, Phoenix Gallery, Exeter, (2017); Creekside open part 2 (selected by Alison Wilding), APT Gallery, London (2017); Love, Peace and Happiness, Menier Gallery, London (2017); MA/MFA/PhD Show, Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK, (2016) ; Other, Royal College of Art, London, UK, (2016); No Matter, New Matter, Ed.Varie, New York, USA, (2015); Signal Failure (Squared), Safe House, London, UK, (2015); Mostyn Open 19, Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales, UK (2015); Finite Project Altered When Open, David Dale Gallery, Glasgow, UK (2015); Promise of Palm Trees, Breese Little, London, UK (2015); Detail, H Project Space, Bangkok, Thailand, Transition Gallery, London, UK, Usher Gallery, Lincoln, UK, (2014); Situation, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia, (2014); Interchange Junctions, Howick Place, London, UK (2014); Riff, Baltic 39, Newcastle, UK, (2013); Easy Does It, David Dale Gallery, Glasgow, Aid & Abet, Cambridge, Supercollider, Blackpool, UK, (2013); Common People, Ti Pi Tin, London, UK, (2013); Signal Failure, Legion TV, London, UK, (2013); Untitled, Miami Beach, Miami, USA (with Carslaw St* Lukes), (2012); Crocodiles With A Second Skin Thrash, Over + Out, Lincoln, (2012); Making Space, Slade School of Fine Art Research Centre, Woburn Square, London (2012);Translate/Transcribe, Central House of Artists, Moscow. Russia, (2011); We Are All In This Together, Bureau, Manchester, (2011); Surplus to Requirements? Slade School of Fine Art Research Centre, Woburn Square, London (2011); London Art Fair Projects, The Florence Trust (2011); Guasch-Coranty International Painting Prize, Centro de Arte Tecla Sala Barcelona, Spain (2010); Northern Stars,The Blade Factory, A Foundation, Liverpool, (2010); Paint, Beldam Gallery, Brunel University, London, (2010); London Art Fair, Paul Stolper Gallery, London, (2010); FringeMK Painting Prize, Middleton Hall, Milton Keynes (2009); Creekside Open (Part 1) Selected by Jenni Lomax, A.P.T Gallery, London (2009); Coller-Elective, Arena Gallery, Liverpool (2009); Pairs, Paul Stolper Gallery, London (2009); London Art Fair, Paul Stolper Gallery, London (2009); Swap/Vaihto, Bureau, Manchester and The Cable Factory, Helsinki. Finland (2008); Future 50, Project Space Leeds, Leeds (2008).
Talks
Tate, Liverpool; MACBA, Barcelona, Spain; University of Leeds; University of the Creative Arts, Farnham; University of the Creative Arts, Canterbury; Newcastle University; Goldsmiths, University of London; Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden; Central St.Martins, London; RMIT, Melbourne, Australia; The University of Westminster, London; The Bartlett School of Architecture, London; Parsons New School of Design, New York; Plymouth College of Art; Arts & Heritage ; The University of Oxford; University of Derby; University of Lincoln; University of Chichester; The University of Hertfordshire; The Broadway Gallery, Letchworth Garden City; Trust New Art, The National Trust; The Courtauld Institute of Art, London; The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
Public Collections
Manchester Art Gallery; Brunel University; The Royal London Hospital; Paintings in Hospitals; The University of Hertfordshire
Awards
QEST award (2019)
Jean Spenser and Malcolm Hughes Bursary, Slade School of Fine Art (2012)
RIBA MSA small project award for the Tatton Park Biennial project, (2011)
Residency at The Florence Trust, London, UK, (2008)
Research and Development Award from the Arts Council, England, (2004).
Press
Art Fictions Podcast, Interview with Jillian Knipe, April 2021
The World is Larger in Summer, Interview in Ambit Magazine, Issue 233. July 2018.
Dave Pritchard, Review of Out of Place, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle, Corridor 8, August 2019
Dave Pritchard, Fiona Curran & Andrew Burton: Contemporary Art at Gibside, Corridor 8. June 2018.
Lara Eggleton, Follies, Art Monthly, Issue 417. June 2018
Louise Lee, Promise of Palm Trees, Breese Little, This is Tomorrow. February 2015
Robert Clark , RIFF/T, Baltic 39, The Guardian Guide. January 2014
Gabriel Coxhead, Beach Fatigue, Carslaw St* Lukes, Modern Painters. January 2014
Time Out London, Beach Fatigue , November 2013
CultureCritic, Beach Fatigue,. October 2013
Joe Turnbull, Beach Fatigue, The Upcoming. October 2013.
Anne Charnock, Art's Love Affair With JG Ballard, The Huffington Post. October, 2013.
David Hayley, Review of Tatton Park Biennial. AN Magazine. 28th June 2010.
David Lillington, Review of Tatton Park Biennial, Eye Contact, 6th July 2010.
Kevin Hunt, review of Coller Elective, Arena Gallery, Liverpool. AN Magazine, May 2009.
Matt Price, Review of The World is Larger in Summer, MAC Birmingham. AN Magazine. 20th December 2007
“To be able to imagine a new colour is allegorical of the possibility of imagining a whole new social world.” (Fredric Jameson)