Over the last six years Ana has worked extensively with glass in all its forms, exploring its physical qualities and inherent dualities; hard and fragile, solid and transparent. She works in the liminal region between sculpture and glassmaking, challenging the boundaries of how the material can be used. Glassmaking for Ana is a process of experimentation where natural elements or man-made substances are added to the process leading to unpredictable and unexpected outcomes. Her fine art practice uses the medium of glass as a vehicle to transport multi-layered messages and meaning moving away from the traditional and decorative possibilities of glass and defying its material boundaries. The resulting works are predominantly achromatic.
Her doctoral research is focused on the legacy of Joseph Beuys and his ideas on materials and social sculpture. This has led to an exploration of the physical and metaphorical dimension of everyday materials and objects, and their ability to catalyse meaning through association and suggestion. Analogous to an alchemist, her practice experiments with the transmutation of common elements. It exploits the sediments of history and narrative embedded in materials to form layers of meaning in her work. This ‘back story’, inherent or invested, becomes important in the works interpretation and understanding and can be contained in the material, its history, or an action undertaken in producing the work.
Her early career took place in Brazil where she became Director of Cultural and Community Projects for Brasil Telecom, gaining national recognition and a number of awards for her contribution to social and cultural development. She worked as Arts Consultant for the British Council and set up her own cultural management company creating and producing many local and national arts projects, while developing her own practice as a painter and graphic designer and showing widely in group exhibitions in Brazil. In 2003 she was a founding member of the Instituto Plano Cultural (Brazil/Germany/UK), and was appointed International Relations Director.
Contact: anahopkins4@hotmail.com
Website: www.anarosahopkins.com
Upcoming exhibitions
- Sept 2012 Rogue Open Studio, Rogue Artists’ Studios, Manchester
- October 2012 Meanwhile See This, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
- Nov 2012 Cabedal, Plataforma Revolver, Lisbon, Portugal
- Nov 2012 21st Century Rural Museum, Palacio das Artes, Porto, Portugal
- 2013 21st Century Rural Museum, Ciclo de Artes Plasticas de Coimbra, Portugal
- 2013 21st Century Rural Museum MUDE, Lisbon, Portugal
Exhibitions
- 2012 Neo:artprize 2012, Gallery 22, Bolton
- 2012 Part of the Programme, Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, Finland
- 2011 Secs and Death Cells, The Hive, Manchester
- 2010 Where does material end and object begin? Situation, Manchester
- 2009 Sculpture Installation ‘Body Glass’, Victoria Baths, Mancheste
Awards
- neo:artprize 2012 winner
- 2010 NADFAS North West Artists Bursary, NADFAS, UK
Qualifications and training
- 2011 Research candidate PhD by Practice Art & Design, MIRIAD, Manchester
- 2011 MA Fine Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
- 2010 BA (Hons) Fine Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
- 2006 Foundation Degree Art & Design, Oxford & Cherwell Valley College, Oxford
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