SOPHIE SOUTHGATE
Biography
Sophie Southgate is a British glass artist living and working between Bristol and Kent, whose innovative practice explores the interplay of colour, light, and form.
Cast in solid glass, Southgate’s creations are ambiguous objects that capture and manipulate light, blurring the boundaries between surface and internal space, where colour shifts and transforms in response to light, movement, and perspective.
Southgate’s creative process is rooted in intuitive play and experimentation, embracing the endless possibilities of colour combinations and structural iterations. Using blocks of cast glass that are joined to form segmented shapes, her sculptures grow outward in a process reminiscent of assembling a three-dimensional puzzle. Each piece evolves organically, without pre-planning, as she allows intuition and the material itself to guide the work. Her forms often rotate and coil, embodying both dynamic movement and precise craftsmanship.
Colour is not confined to the surface or treated as secondary to form. Instead, it becomes an intrinsic, fluctuating element that travels through the material, skirting around curves and intersecting planes. This dynamic interplay invites viewer participation, requiring one to move around her sculptures to fully experience the vibrant transformations. Sophie’s work reflects a joyful commitment to experimentation, material exploration, and the emotive potential of colour and form in contemporary glass art.
Sophie Southgate graduated from Cardiff School of Art and Design in 2014 with a BA in Ceramics, working as a ceramic artist and exhibiting around the UK and Europe. In 2019 she attended the Royal College of Art and begun working with cast glass, graduating with a Masters in 2023. During this time, she was awarded a QEST Britford Bridge Trust Scholarship and funding from the RCA, as well as a Scholarship to attend a course at Corning Museum of Glass. She is winner of the 2023 Bullseye Glass Prize for her piece ‘Alternate’ and was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2024.
