about my work
I make paintings, drawings and ceramics inspired by the ordinary things that stick in my mind. I'm interested in everyday objects, memory and the feeling that can become attached to something very familiar.
Memory comes up a lot in my work, real memories, imagined memories and the possibility of objects carrying memories that don't belong to us. I'm interested in how something as simple as a bottle, a chair or a pair of gloves can become connected to a particular person, place or moment, and how those associations can change the way we see it.
A lot of my work starts with things I've noticed, collected or remembered without necessarily knowing why they stayed with me. I like the familiarity of these things and the opportunity to remove them from where they might belong.
I'm interested in work that can be funny or playful but still have something sad, sentimental or slightly uncomfortable within it. I'm trying not to use humour as an easy way out of thinking about things, and lately I've been spending more time sitting with the work and asking myself why certain images and objects keep coming back.
My ceramics are relatively new to my practice, and I'm still figuring out what they are. They have come from the same interest in objects and images that runs through my drawings and paintings, but become physical, tactile things in their own right
b. 1998, UK
Education:
-BA (Hons) Painting, Camberwell College of Arts 2017-2020
-Foundation, USCH, 2016-2017
Solo Exhibitions:
-Things I Can’t Remember, The Dirty Old Gallery, Hastings, May 2022
-Molly Stredwick: A Collection of Painted Works, The Dirty Old Gallery, Hastings, August 2021
-What is the opposite of floating?, 29 South Street, Eastbourne, April 2021
-It might not have been better, I feel like it was, A-Space Gallery, Hastings, November 2020
Group Exhibitions:
– Eastbourne Open, VOLT, Eastbourne, March 2022
– Man v Machine, Bare Bones Gallery, Hastings, March 2022
-Transcend, Gallery 3, Margate, October 2021
-Digital Graduate Showcase, www.graduateshowcase.arts.ac.uk, July 2020
-HANDS IN THE DIGIT(AL) AGE, www.bigrat.studio, May 2020
-I’M MAKING THIS FOR THE RAT THAT LIVES UNDER MY OVEN. www.bigrat.studio, April 2020
-‘Class Of’ Third Year Interim Show, Copland Gallery, Peckham, London, February 2020
-A Wild Goose Never Lays a Tame Egg, The New Cross House, New Cross, London, May 2019
-‘Merge” Second Year Interim Show, Dilston Grove, CGP Gallery, Southwark, London, January 2019
-First Year Painting Show, Camberwell College of Arts, Camberwell, London, May 2018
-Foundation Art Show, Sussex Coast College, Hastings, June 2017
Press & Publications:
-BBC Radio 4, Front Row, March 2021
-“In Conversation With Molly Stredwick” www.middlegroundprojectspace.com, March 2021
-Skate Jawn, Issue 58, November 2020
-Gatekeeper, Issue One, November 2020
-ICKY! Magazine, 2015
If you are interested in reading more about my work, you can sign up to my mailing list here and you can read previous Studio Notes at the link below.