Helen Barff is a sculptor whose practice has its foundation in drawing. She works with found objects and materials such as felt, plaster, concrete, rubber or photographic surfaces, using processes including wrapping, casting or other interventions in space and surface. The physical nature of making prints from objects is an extension of her sculptural process. She has created an eccentric menagerie of works that take on a presence of animal, human, or something in-between.
Barff graduated from Goldsmiths College in Fine Art and Art History in 1999 and a Drawing MA at Camberwell College in 2004. Solo exhibitions include ‘I Wrap My Fear Around Me Like a Blanket’, Close Ltd, Taunton (2023); ‘Many and many a day like this’, The Stone Space, London (2021); and ‘Memory of Clothes’, Worthing Museum (2019). Other exhibitions include: ‘All the Names’, Scrap Metal, Toronto; The Jerwood Drawing Prize; ‘Matter and Memory’, Alison Jacques Gallery; and ‘Open Cube’ at White Cube. Her work is held in various collections in the UK, Canada, Mexico and the USA.