Sophia is an artist and old master drawings researcher based in south London.

She holds a First Class BA degree in Fine Art from the Art Academy, and in 2013, she graduated with an MA in History of Art from the University of Edinburgh, which included a year studying at the Università degli Studi Roma Tre in Rome.

From 2016 - 2021, Sophia worked as a researcher for Day & Faber, a London-based fine art dealer specialising in European drawings.

Since leaving university Sophia has maintained an art practice, exhibiting and selling internationally.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My practice combines painting, embroidery, soft sculpture, drawing and performance to examine issues of representation in the Western art canon, which I am regularly exposed to through my work as an Old Master drawings researcher. My two principal focuses are the representation of women in Christian and classical works from the 14th to 16th century, and the exclusion of female creative voices throughout art history. My work often seeks to highlight problems of representation within public museum collections. I use my paintings, drawings and sculptures to embody my own imagined experiences of women from different historical scenarios, to help me explore my own relationship to them.

In a recent project I explored the experiences of enclosed nuns in 16th century Florence, and the impact of the convent’s art on their psyches. How would they have been affected by the often violent representations of female martyred saints that they were exposed to? How psychologically affected have I been, as an art historian repeatedly exposed to this imagery?

In a current project, I am asking how a creative upper-middle class woman in the Regency period might have dealt with the gender-based repression of her creativity, as she watched the advantages given to her male counterparts. In parallel I ask myself: in what ways is female creativity repressed in our society, and how has this affected my expression?

The final incarnation of a work develops from a period of rigorous study and research. The projects are conceived to dialogue with works of art in the Western canon, and to offer viewers the opportunity to consider these artworks through a contemporary feminist lens. Often I adapt or imitate the techniques and processes of my reference material in order to pose questions of them. In this way I am inspired by the feminist artists of the 70’s who adopted stitching as a technique to challenge historical notions of ‘female craft’.

RESIDENCIES

2022

Artist In Residence (3 months) for the future Museo Sant’Orsola, Firenze, Italy

EXHIBITIONS

2024

Works on Paper, The Gallery at Green and Stone, group show

2023

Vicinity: 785,500 m2 with the Space Collective, London, group show

Oltre Le Mura, Museo Sant’Orsola - Riapertura, Florence, Italy, two person show

Oltre Le Mura, Museo Sant’Orsola, Florence, Italy, two person show

Summer Show, The Art Academy, London, group show

Finding Space, Open Ealing, London, group show

2022

Working with Bronze, The Art Academy, London, group show

2021

One Fine Day, Fazenda, London, group show

2018

Flying Colour Gallery, London, group show

Art Academy Drawing Prize, The Art Academy, London, group show, commendation

2017

Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize, Piano Nobile, London, group show

WORK

2022 - 2023

Trustee, The Art Academy

2016 - 2021

Old Master Drawings Researcher, Day & Faber, London

2014 - 2016

Developer and Content Curator, thesaleroom.com, London

2013

Internship, Old Master Drawings Department, Sotheby’s London

EDUCATION

2016 - 2023

BA (Hons) Fine Art, The Art Academy, London [First Class Honours]

2009 - 2013

MA History of Art, University of Edinburgh

2011 - 2012

History of Art, Erasmus Year, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Rome, Italy

WRITING

2023

Freedom in the convents: were the art collections of Florentine Renaissance convents used as a tool of gender-based oppression? (6,000 words), Museo Sant’Orsola Residency Project [available on request]

PRESS

2024

‘View from Florence’, The Tablet, Joanna Moorhead, 2 March 2024

2023

‘A Firenze, il futuro ed il passato nell’ex Monastero di Sant’Orsola’, The Way Magazine, 16 September 2023

‘“Oltre le mura di Sant’Orsola” fino al 2 luglio in mostra’, Florence TV, 3 June 2023 [video, 2.08 mins in]

‘Riapre l'ex monastero di Sant'Orsola’, Rai, 1 June 2023 [video, 1.26 mins in]

‘Firenze, riapertura (parziale e temporanea) di Sant'Orsola’, Corriere Fiorentino, 1 June 2023

‘Cosa fare a Firenze nel weekend’, Il Reporter, 1 June 2023

‘Oltre le mura di Sant’Orsola: una mostra contemporanea’, Stamp Toscana, 1 June 2023

‘A Firenze riapre per un mese l’antico Convento di Sant’Orsola’, Il Giornale Dell’Arte, 1 June, 2023

‘Sant’Orsola: riapre l’ex monastero fiorentino’, FUL Magazine, 1 June 2023