Francis Upritchard
b. 1976, New Zealand
Francis Upritchard was born in 1976 in New Plymouth, New Zealand. She lives and works in London and New Zealand. Upritchard's work draws on figurative sculpture, craft traditions and design, blending references from literature to Japanese folklore, Indian miniatures to Romanesque frescoes, and ancient sculptures and burial grounds to science fiction. Her installations showcase a wide variety of materials; her distinctive figurative sculptures are made using polymer plastic, amorphous mythological figures in balata - a Brazilian rubber, bronze dinosaurs, glass vessels, ceramic urns and felt hats adorned with beads, badges and plastic decorations.
Francis Upritchard has a solo exhibition Paper, Creature, Stone at Christchurch Art Gallery, New Zealand opening in April this year. Previous solo exhibitions include Big Fish Eat Little Fish, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Belgium, 2020, Wetwang Slack at the Barbican Centre, London (2018-19), Centaurs and Sea Creatures, Ivan Anthony, Auckland, New Zealand (2018), Jealous Saboteurs, Dunedin Public Art Gallery and Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand (2017), Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), Melbourne, Australia (2016); and at the City Gallery Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand (2016); The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2014); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2014); Potato Poem, the Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan (2013); Mandrake,
The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Ireland (2013); A Hand of Cards, Nottingham Contemporary, UK (2012); Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center, (2012). Francis Upritchard represented New Zealand in 53rd Venice Biennale (2009).