Sarah Kudirka

Interior headshot of artist Sarah Kudirka; a white woman with curly fair hair and glasses, wearing a striped top, necklace and turquoise blue cardigan, smiling with face to camera, and a painting of shell-like abstracted forms hung behind her on a pale wall above a wood fireplace. Photographer credit: Alexander Hoyles

Hello

I am Sarah Kudirka, an artist working with the shapes and edges of stuff.

You know when you find something in your pocket that you picked up a while back then forgot all about? Familiar but unknown, a wee treasure, your fingers feel around its surfaces, its edges. Not until you pull it out of your pocket and see it in your hand do you know what it is.

Kind of like that, I make semi-abstract art about exploring things.

“work that is beautiful, layered and thoughtful” – Jan Patience, art writer 

My latest paintings and drawings focus on shell-like shapes and bowl:boat motifs. They draw loosely on natural forms but are wrapped up in human ideas of belonging, distance or closeness, co-existence and resistance, diaspora and compassion. Calming, seemingly serene or still, the forms are held in tension, the constant struggle to survive.

I paint in oils on linen, over recycled Polaroid / instant film exposures and onto found objects. My practice is distinctively low-tech and I have little interest in technical virtuosity – I pull things apart to move them on and build them up again iteratively. In this way over months, sometimes years I create incised, scraped, obliterated, often deeply-textured paint surfaces.  There are always many layers to what I make.

 

I have high-level experience in creative consultancy, notably working with Arup engineers, architects and designers on global projects from buildings to public realm art. As Arup Art Inhouse I developed and launched The Penguin Pool events worldwide. I was an arts organisation Trustee/Board Member for seven years and have served on the selection committees for a major London public sculpture commission just now coming to fruition. Selector and curator of many UK shows over the years and now also the founder/curator of my eponymous ‘sometimes’ arts and sojourn space in Glasgow.

Born and educated in England, part of my childhood was spent in Kenya and I am now based permanently in Scotland. My paintings and prints are in corporate, public and private collections internationally. Do please get in touch if you’d like to have my work on your walls; seek my input on a project; discuss a show or commission; to say hello.

Artist's CV

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  • BA (Hons) Fine Art – First Class – The University of Leeds, 1990
  • MA Sculpture Studies – Distinction – The University of Leeds, 1991

Awards

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  • Purchase Prize, Young Artists South East – Kent Art & Libraries
  • Research Award – The Henry Moore Sculpture Trust
  • Major Award – The British Council
  • The Passey Prize in Art – The University of Leeds
  • Light in Art – The Prudential
  • Elected Professional Artist member of the Society of Scottish Artists

One Person Shows

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  • 2023 a bowl : a boat – The Briggait, Glasgow
  • 2017 When did you last look up? – London Festival of Architecture
  • 2017 Berlin City Skies – Laura Lea Art & Design, London
  • 2015 Paint + Polaroids  – Canary Wharf Window Gallery, London
  • 2014 City Skies London – The Orange Tree, London
  • 2005 Belongings – Toni Heath Gallery, London
  • 2001 Fit and Proper – London Stock Exchange
  • 2000 As Seen on TV – bbb contemporary art, London
  • 1998 Vocabulary – Oliver J Benjamin, London
  • 1995 Methodiz’d – Casson Gallery, Eastbourne
  • 1993 Chairs & Stripes – Newlyn Gallery, Leeds
  • 1992 Country Seat – Lotherton Hall, Aberford

Selected Group Shows

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  • 2025 Life With Water – An Tobar/SSA, Tobermory, Isle of Mull
  • 2025 TOP SP!N – PimPam Creative/South Block Project Space, Glasgow
  • 2024 SSA Annual – Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
  • 2024 Faultline: Gaza 355 – OrielQ Gallery, Narberth
  • 2024 Artists for Palestine – Empire Gallery, Edinburgh
  • 2024 Art Car Boot Sale – Tramway, Glasgow
  • 2024 Now and Then – VAS, Dalkeith Palace
  • 2024 Summer Show – Smithy Gallery, Blanefield
  • 2024 Lift Others Up – K U D I R K A, Glasgow
  • 2024 Blue – Stallan Brand, Glasgow
  • 2023 Winter Show – Smithy Gallery, Blanefield
  • 2023 SSA Annual – Maclaurin Art Gallery, Ayr
  • 2023 5 Installations – 1873 Hall, The Briggait, Glasgow
  • 2023 Build – Low Gallery, The Briggait, Glasgow
  • 2023 ArtCarBootSale – Patricia Fleming Gallery/SWG3, Glasgow
  • 2023 WASPS X Kirkcudbright Galleries – Kirkcudbright, Dumfries & Galloway
  • 2022 Finding the Wonder – Tatha Gallery, Newport-on-Tay
  • 2022 ArtCarBootSale – Patricia Fleming Gallery/SWG3, Glasgow
  • 2021 Stop.Start, Kudirka & Comrie – South Block Project Space, Glasgow
  • 2021 Instant, Society of Scottish Artists – co-Curator & exhibitor
  • 2019 Little Originals – Dockstreet Studios Gallery, Dundee
  • 2019 ArtCarBootSale – Patricia Fleming Gallery/SWG3, Glasgow
  • 2019 & 22 Glasgow Contemporary Art Fair, Kelvingrove, Glasgow
  • 2018 Into The City – Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk
  • 2016 & 2017 The Other Art Fair – Victoria House, London
  • 2016 Introducing – Roseberys Auction House, London
  • 2015 The Other Art Fair – Old Truman Brewery, London
  • 2010 Socle – Bow, London
  • 2007 Torture Care – auction & show, London
  • 2005-18 Secret – Royal College of Art, London
  • 2005 IDEA/You are de-corator – Hackney, London
  • 2005 Artmix – Workplace Art, London
  • 2004 The Makers – Soup Projects, London
  • 2003 Pop Culture – Beatrice Royal Art Gallery, Southampton
  • 2002 Size Matters – Stephen Lacey Gallery, London
  • 2001 ARTFutures – Contemporary Art Society, London

Residencies & Trusteeships, etc

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  • 2025        Elected Professional Artist Member of SSA
  • 2024.       Established K U D I R K A sometimes artspace
  • 2021         Paper published in ‘Studies in Photography’
  • 2020        Speaker at National Trust for Scotland Second Morton Symposium
  • 2018-21   Elected Council Member, Society of Scottish Artists
  • 2018         ProjectAbility Research Residency, Trongate 103, Glasgow
  • 2017         Invited Artist on selection panel for major London public sculpture
  • 2011-14    Artist in ARUP, global residency for design/engineering firm
  • 2010-17    Trustee/Board Member of Acme Artists Studios Ltd
  • 2009         In Discussion invited artist, Lee Campbell projects
  • 2004-05   Chair of Matrix Chambers artworks committee
  • 2002-03   Tate Modern, assistant to Sir Nicholas Serota / Vicente Todolì
  • 2001         Organiser of Larnaca Works Open Studios, London
  • 1999         Collaborated with Gillian Cargill on Reclining Artists photo project
  • 1997-98   ‘Land’ published in Women Artists Diary, Womens Press
  • 1992-94   Austin Wright catalogue raisonné for Henry Moore Sculpture Trust published by Lund Humphries
  • 1992         Invited speaker at Association of Art Historians conference

Public Realm Art Consultancy with/for architects, developers, private clients
Visual Creativity training for building engineers, architects and designers
Founder of ‘The Penguin Pool’ ARUP events held in 15 cities worldwide

Work in Collections

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  • Kent Arts and Libraries, UK
  • The British Institute of Human Rights, UK
  • Various corporate collections, UK
  • Private collections in Australia, Austria, Canada, England, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Lithuania, New Zealand, Scotland, Spain and USA

 

NB Until 2012 I was called Sarah K Davenport