Artist statement

I make installations, sculpture and photographic works that create altered visual and sensory effects and environments.

Using light through photography, projection and various other light sources and often employing industrial and mass-produced materials that are either already highly coloured or that are colourless which I then enrich with colour, I use processes and materials that highlight, distort and disorientate, for example through reflection, blurring, layering and duplication.

My work is underpinned and motivated by my interests in how architecture, the built environment and physical space are experienced. I often explore sites in flux, transition or hiatus, working intuitively with the physical space as a material in itself as well as a container to make an intervention full of content and references that takes me time to make through iterative processes and then for a viewer to experience and process.

Ultimately my works seek to visually draw you in and invite you to question what you’re seeing; juxtaposing and contrasting perceived reality, solidity, permanence and simplicity with uncertainty, fragility, ambiguity and complexity.

Biography

Holly Rowan Hesson lives and works between Leeds and York, UK. She has exhibited in solo and group shows nationally over the last twelve years. Solo exhibitions include Echo, commissioned by Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival at Pyramid Arts Centre in 2017, New Work at & Model, Leeds in 2016 and Assembly at Bankley Gallery, Manchester in 2016 which was awarded after winning the Bankley Gallery Open.

Hesson was invited to exhibit with Paul Huxley RA by Royal Society of Sculptors for The Line London in 2018, selected for the inaugural Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art in 2017 and was presented by Castlefield Gallery at The Manchester Contemporary in 2015.

In 2013 she received an MA in Contemporary Fine Art with Distinction from University of Salford.

Solo and two person exhibitions  

  • Sculpture Galleries of the Not Future, publication, 2025 (Holly Rowan Hesson and Kerry Harker)

  • Snap, Thorpe Park, Leeds, 2022 (solo exhibition)

  • Conversation in Colour, arebyte, London, 2018 (two person show with Paul Huxley RA commissioned by Royal Society of Sculptors for The Line London)

  • Echo, Pyramid Arts Centre, Warrington, 2018 (solo exhibition commissioned by Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival)

  • Graft, PS Mirabel, Manchester, 2017 (two person show with Rowan Eastwood

  • Assembly, Bankley Gallery, Manchester, 2016 (solo exhibition awarded on winning the Bankley Gallery Open)

  • New Work, & Model, Leeds, 2016 (solo exhibition)

  • Only forward, Piccadilly Place, Manchester, 2013 (solo exhibition)

  • Catalyst, Piccadilly Place, Manchester, 2013 (two person show with Lisa Denyer)

Selected group exhibitions 

  • Re:ject, Lens Lab Project, Leeds, 2024

  • RE-VIEW, Hull Artist Research Initiative, 2024

  • Locus Lancaster: Space, Place and Experience, University of Lancaster symposium, 2024 (commissioned by University of Lancaster School of Architecture)

  • Palindrome, Critical Fish, publication, 2023

  • Wet Dovetail 2:4, virtual, 2022

  • Soanyway issue 12, online, 2022

  • Micro-commission, The Art House, Wakefield, 2018

  • Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art, Coventry, 2017

  • Creekside Open, A.P.T Gallery, London, 2017

  • Phantom, Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge, 2017

  • Spectrum, PS Mirabel, Manchester, 2016

  • The Manchester Contemporary, presented by Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, 2015

  • Tracing PAPER, PAPER Gallery, Manchester, 2015

  • Open House, Federation House, Manchester, 2015

  • Glitter & Gold, Cardroom, Manchester, 2014

  • Bankley Open, Bankley Gallery, Manchester, 2014

  • HOARD, HOARD, Leeds, 2014

  • Society of Island Universes, Piccadilly Place, Manchester, 2014

  • Artifice, PS Mirabel, Manchester, 2013

  • Saatchi Screen, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2013

  • Summer Show, Malgras Naudet, Manchester, 2013

  • Journeys and Migrations, Hand Made in Bradford, Bradford, 2012

  • Reverb, Bankley Gallery, Manchester, 2012

Residencies

  • AA2A artist in residence, York St John University, 2024-5

  • Hull Artist Research Initiative, RE:VIEW, 2024

  • Leeds Creative Labs, University of Leeds Cultural Institute programme, School of Civil Engineering, 2024

  • AA2A, York St John University, 2018-9

  • & Model residency, & Model, Leeds, 2016

  • From the Rooftops, The Penthouse, Manchester, 2013

Awards 

  • A-n Artist Bursary, 2025

  • YSI (Yorkshire Sculpture International) Sculpture Network shortlist, 2025

  • UNBOUND Dynamic Artists for Public Spaces training and mentoring award, 2024-5

  • Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society grant, 2024

  • Developing Your Creative Practice Arts Council England award, 2021

  • Freelands Foundation Emergency Award, 2020

  • Board Member of Royal Society of Sculptors, 2019

  • Member of Royal Society of Sculptors, 2019

  • A-n Artist Bursary, 2019

  • Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust Award, 2018

  • Arts Council England Grants for the Arts award, 2017

  • PS Mirabel Open prize commendation, 2016

  • A-n Professional Development Bursary, 2016

  • Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust Award, 2016

  • Arts Council England Grants for the Arts award, 2015

  • Castlefield Gallery/ Creative Industries Trafford individual mentoring award, 2015

  • Tracing PAPER by PAPER Gallery award, 2015

  • Bankley Gallery Open first prize winner, 2014

Writing

Publications, reviews and press  

Education 

  • MA Contemporary Fine Art (Distinction), University of Salford, 2013

  • Certificate in Art and Design (Distinction), Calderdale College, 2010

  • BA Hons French Studies, University of Manchester, 1994

Professional background

My professional experience prior to and alongside working as an artist includes project management and communications work across multiple sectors including visual arts, media, digital, creative and cultural industries and placemaking, regeneration, the environment and sustainable communities.

linkedin.com/in/hollyrowanhesson

Contact 

holly@hollyrowanhesson.co.uk

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