Sophie Macpherson

Born in Aylesbury in 1972, Macpherson graduated in 1996 with a BA in Fine Art from Glasgow School of Art. Macpherson served as a committee member at Transmission Gallery, Glasgow from 1998 to 2000. Recent exhibitions include: ‘The Glass Bead Game’ (Vilma Gold Project Space, Berlin); ‘If Not Now’ (Broadway 1602, New York); ‘La Femme du Nulle Part’ (Doggerfisher, Edinburgh); ‘Working Things Out’ (Spike Island, Bristol); ‘Remake/Re-Model’ (Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow); a two-person show at Laura Bartlett, London, and ‘Open Field’ (CCA, Glasgow). Macpherson was awarded the Scottish Arts Council / Location One New York Residency, which she completed in June 2009 and she has a forthcoming solo show at Sorcha Dallas in September. She lives and works in Glasgow.
Macpherson makes sculptures, drawings and photographs which are often presented in close proximity, suggesting interrelated fictions. A recurrent humorous subject might be the ersatz confidence of a Bauhaus-schooled Sally Bowles, in whose divinely decadent fabrications satin surfaces of brightly coloured gloss paint are belied by a patent diy roughness. Her large-scale installations frequently resemble stages or catwalks with echoes of Busby Berkeley and the sardonic glitz of Berlin cabaret. The accompanying drawings – like abstracted fashion illustration in coloured pencils – possess both wry elegance and a beguiling lightness of touch making silhouettes of the patterns on art-deco-like costumes refracted through a process of sinister-tinged patterning.
click here for Sophie Macpherson’s CV