S1 Artspace presents newly commissioned work by Emma Barrow, Lisa Castagner and Sophie Woodrow.

Emma Barrow’s sculptures are conceived in response to the materials from which they are made, drawing on an inherent property or a feature of a found object. Polystyrene is corroded by aerosols, creases in a disc of cardboard are made firm with resin, a blanket is unravelled to create mossy pockets on the gallery wall. Barrow’s work makes reference to figurative and astral forms playing on a willingness to recognise facial arrangements in abstract compositions whilst delivering metallic colour or volcanic texture at the surface.

Lisa Castagner constructs images of heavily stylized situations, achieving a sense of order, symmetry and perfection associated with fashion photography. Domestic interiors are neutralized to become clinical signifiers producing a serenity in conflict with an inner drama located in her female subjects. Castagner’s work alludes to spillage or eruption, a private moment of transgression as a form of escapism.

Sophie Woodrow’s large-scale ceramic work invents sculptural forms in fine clays normally employed in delicate or ornamental pottery. Rude forms achieve brilliance at the surface, a brooding mountain is dressed in a glaze of Welsh colours, a massive rabbit is made a soft, pearly white. Woodrow’s figures revisit romantic ideas of nature in evolutionary terms, sketching a daydream of how technology has created the conditions and the means to adapt.

Emma Barrow graduated from a BA in Tapestry at Edinburgh College of Art in 1999 and recently completed an MA in Fine Art Goldsmiths. Recent exhibitions include All Personal at VTO London and All at Once Together at the Same Time at Colony Birmingham. Emma lives and works in London.

Lisa Castagner studied at Edinburgh College of Fine Art before completing an MA in Photography at the Royal College of Art in 2003 recent exhibitions include Not Yet Night at Studio Voltaire and Pilot London 2005. Lisa lives and works in London.

Sophie Woodrow completed a degree in Ceramics at Falmouth College of Art in 2001. Recent exhibitions include Retox Festival, Bristol. Sophie lives and works in Sheffield.