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Sasha Sykes (b.1976) is an Irish artist with a research-based practice in rural Ireland, at the foothills of the Wicklow mountains. Her artworks and furniture pieces are hand made using acrylics and resins to explore, manipulate, and challenge the material language of the natural world through the embedding of plants, flowers, algae and fungi she collects from the landscape. Her architectural background infuses her work with a sense of rigor, and informs her strong approach to form and composition, exploring notions of history and usefulness in a 21st century context.
The artist has worked all over the world including London (1999-2003) and New York (2003-2006) and has now settled in her native County Carlow where she lives with her husband and three children and works in a strawbale studio next door. Known for her use of hand-cast resins, embedding found objects and collected organic materials, Sykes tells stories of our landscape and social history. Her work is found in numerous private and public collections such as the National Museum of Ireland, The Office of Public Works, The Department of Foreign Affairs and The Department of Culture & Heritage, as well as prestigious hotels and corporate headquarters: from Carton House to the Bank of America. The New York Times stated that Sykes’ art is ‘for people who live in the city but dream of the country’. Noted honors include Gyre, which had critical success at the PAD fair in London, and being invited to exhibit in the ‘Best of Europe’ at the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity’s 2018 ‘Homo Faber’ show in Venice, and receiving an inaugural Fellowship from the foundation in 2023.
[…] Sasha Sykes joined us recently to discuss her work, which has been at Voltz Clarke Gallery, as well as her background. When we spoke, she was in County Carlow, Ireland where her strawbale studio sits. Built during the pandemic, the studio uses local materials, including bales of straw and sheep’s wool. To learn more about her eco-studio and her beautiful botanical work, listen to the complete interview. […]