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Juliette Bigley MSDC

Metal Work

About Juliette
Juliette makes abstract metal sculptures based on composite geometric forms that explore how our internal experiences interact with the world. Her work is made from sheet metal, sometimes coloured and sometimes left raw. It is crisp and calm, and the spaces within it are as important as the forms themselves. Her sculptures are ‘thoughts along a way’. Made to contribute to her thinking rather than as conclusions in themselves, they are ‘punctuation marks’ in an on-going dialogue between thinking, writing and making, with each discipline contributing to a more rounded understanding.
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Juliette is a sculptor who uses metal to explore how we experience our emotional and physical place in the world, and how we negotiate the interface between the physical world that surrounds us and the intangible worlds of emotion, belief, thought, language and memory. Her work is abstract and uses conjunctions of geometric forms, often comprises groups of objects or pieces with which an audience can interact. She trained at The Cass School of Art gaining BA (Hons, First Class) and a research MA (Distinction). Degrees in both English Literature, and in Philosophy complement her metalwork.

Juliette has exhibited nationally and internationally including Design Miami, ArtGeneve, Tresor Contemporary, London Art Fair, and Collect, where she won the prize for Collect Open in 2018. She had her first solo exhibition at The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh in 2019. She has work in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Goldsmiths’ Company Collection, and the Irish State collection, and has received funding from the Arts Council England Grants for the Arts Programme.

Juliette has extensive speaking experience, both live and on podcasts, including talks at the V&A, Collect, London Art Fair, Tresor, the London Design Festival, and Grant Gibsons’ podcast Material Matters. She has been featured in, amongst others, CRAFTS Magazine, the Evening Standard and the FT’s How to Spend It.

Juliette collaborates with Simone ten Hompel as Mixed Metals, a platform for research into making, and for the promotion of sculptural metalwork. She is a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Juliette produced her first publication, Material Perspectives, in 2018, and is represented by Cavaliero Finn.

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Education

2022 MA Philosophy, Birckbeck University of London

2015 MA (Research), Silversmithing: Distinction, The Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design;

2013 BA (Hons) Silversmithing: First Class, The Cass;


2010 BTech Level 1: Distinction, Kensington and Chelsea College;


2002 MSc Voluntary Sector Policy, London School of Economics;

2001 MA, English Literature, University of Edinburgh;

Awards

2019: A-N Bursary

2018: Collect Open Award, Collect Awards 2018;


2017: Arts Council England, Grants for the Arts funding award;

2016: Silver Trust Award for a Body of Work; Silver and Bronze Awards, 3D Design, Goldsmiths Craft and Design Council;

2015: Special Mention, Goldsmiths’ Fair, The Goldsmiths’ Company; Design Council ‘Ones to Watch’ for potential to contribute to British Design;

2014: Gil Packard Bursary, Goldsmiths Craft and Design Council; Society of Designer Craftsmen Distinction Award;


2013: The Cass Award for Excellence (also 2011); Simon Benney Award; British Jewellers Association Award for Silversmithing; Argex Award for a Body of Work; Centrepunch Award for a Body of Work

Selected exhibitions

2023

Collect with Cavaliero Finn

Autumn show, Velarde

2022

Future Heritage, London

Battersea Arts Fair, with Cavaliero Finn

Material Matters, with Mixed Metals

Artefact, London, with Mixed Metals

London Art Fair, with CAA

2021

Artefact, London with Metal Collective

Mastery: Women in Silver, Ruthin Craft Centre

Goldsmiths’ Fair

2019

FPS London Ultra, Bargehouse

Gallerie Montan, Copenhagen

Collect International Fair for Contemporary Objects with CAA

2018

Opening Narratives, Hauser & Wirth Make, Bruton, Somerset

Homo Faber, Michael Angelo Foundation, Venice

Galerie Handwerk, Munich

Collect: Collect Open exhibiting TABLE funded by Arts Council England, winning Collect Open Award

2017

Design Miami with Sarah Myerscough, Miami, USA

Metal Project at Tresor, Basel


Art Geneve, with Taste Contemporary, Geneva (also 2014 and 2016)

2016

A Future Made International Showcasing Programme; Design Days Dubai

Silver Speaks at the V&A

Future Heritage at Decorex

Meister der Moderne (Modern Masters), Handwerkmesse, Munich

2015

Taste Contemporary: Taste on Tour, London

National Museums of Scotland with Contemporary British Silversmiths

2014

Goldsmiths’ Fair (annually 2014 to date; including selections by Zaha Hadid and Julia Peyton-Jones)

Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin

2013

Silber-Sommer-Gallerie, Munich (also 2012)

Collections

2022: Goldsmiths' Company Collection

2017: V&A Museum, Permanent Collection (Balancing Bowl 3)

2015: Irish State Collection, Lucky for One (selection)

Various private collections.

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