'The scene is memory and is therefore nonrealistic. Memory takes a lot of poetic license. It omits some details; others are exaggerated, according to the emotional value of the articles it touches, for memory is seated predominantly in the heart.'
- Tennessee Williams ‘The Glass Menagerie’
'I use colour as a signifier, a method of isolating or highlighting a detail or the psychology of an image. The transparency of the colour on the paper is important, I sometimes feel this operates like a projection…'
- Donna Huddleston
'The work begins from a formal set of problems - very traditional ones. It's the evocation of memory through texture and colour that drives each composition. I research but rarely make studies - when I'm ready I dive straight into making a work, maintaining a tension between these formal concerns, representation and the sensory building of texture. All the other factors - humour, drama, the importance of certain details are the rewards for doing so.'
- Donna Huddleston
Donna Huddleston was born in 1970 in Belfast, Northern Ireland and lives and works in London, UK. She was raised in Australia and studied at the National Art School in Sydney in 1994, before graduating in Stage Design from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1997. In 2020 she was a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award and in 2018 was awarded grants from Arts Council England and the Henry Moore Foundation. She has twice previously been awarded the Elephant Trust Grant (2013 and 2018) and was shortlisted for the inaugural Max Mara Art Prize for Women in 2005. Recent solo exhibitions include Drawing Room, London, UK (2013 and 2019); Charles Asprey - Tyers St., London, UK (2019) and Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, UK (2012). Recent group exhibitions include Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK (2019); Reading Art Gallery, Reading International, Reading, UK (2017); White Cube, London, UK (2017); Camden Arts Centre, London, UK (2016); Isabella Bortolozzi Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2015); Arts Council Collection, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, UK and touring (2015) and Jerwood Space, London, UK and touring (2010 - 2011). Her works are held in private and public collections including British Arts Council, London; Tia Collection, Santa Fe, NM and UBS Art Collection, New York, NY.
All images courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery, excluding For Ten and Parade, courtesy of the artist and Drawing Room, London.
All photos: Ben Westoby, excluding For Ten and Parade: Angus Mill.
Learn more about Donna Huddleston.