The Ferens Art Gallery has announced its next artist in residence as Sam Larter, an artist from East Yorkshire who makes sculptures, drawings and prints.
Sam will be working as the Ferens artist in residence from April until 27 June at the gallery. She has been invited to create new work inspired by the Ferens’ permanent collection or building. The work will go on display from Friday 28 June to Sunday 22 September.
Sam makes sculptures using materials that are free, readily available, donated or discarded, transforming their original purpose. Observation and drawing are important to her practice. She often works quickly, in a spontaneous way, responding to materials and processes, exploring and experimenting.
The forms and images produced in the work are abstract, and influenced by noticing shapes and structures that are present to us every day, but which may be considered unimportant. The sculptures, often take a classic abstract form and look like they could be made of wood or steel but are in fact made using ephemeral materials, evoking a sense of play.
Sam believes that everybody should have access to art and advocates making art with materials that are readily available to hand. She works as a special educational needs teaching assistant at a secondary school in East Yorkshire.
Sam is working in gallery 11 at the Ferens and will be available to chat to visitors between 11am and 1pm each week on Thursdays. She will also be giving a free informal talk about her practice and the new work she is making at the gallery on Thursday 6 June at 2pm.
Claire Longrigg, Exhibitions Officer at Ferens Art Gallery, said: “We are thrilled that Sam Larter will be the Ferens Artist in Residence for the summer season. We were impressed with Sam’s artistic practice and are keen to see how she will respond to the collection or building. It is exciting to start working with Sam on how we can best support her as part of this residency."
Sam Larter said: “I'm extremely happy to be selected as the next Ferens artist in residence. I will be creating a new artwork that will explore the gallery, aspects of the art collection and its founder T. R. Ferens.
“The work will depict some traditional elements of sculpture such as shape and form, whilst continuing my own ventures into the exploration of utilising materials that are maybe considered not so traditional.
“I'm also looking forward to facilitating sculpture workshops with local schools, Future Ferens and the Saturday Art Club. I hope these sessions will be fun, inspiring as well as educational supporting the creativity and ingenuity of our young people in Hull.”
Image credit: Sam Larter, Happenstance with interruptions, Wire, paper, glue, 2024