About Amanda Sumpter

Although stone carving and painting are very different processes, there are common threads that run throughout my practice which reflect my ongoing interest in the connections we make, moments of exchange, and the mechanisms of memory and recall. My practice is deeply rooted in material, whether carving stone or painting by building up or removing layers.

I began stone carving in 2004, and, since this time, have developed an intuitive language in three dimensions. Working with alabaster, limestone, African serpentine, and slate, I carve organic, fluid forms that hint at energy held within their surfaces. Each carving evolves intuitively like a drawing - through touch, rhythm, and my response to the changing relationships created between the curves and planes of each evolving piece.

Painting runs alongside this process. Created through layering, overpainting, or paring back to retain the first marks made, they hold traces of memory, presence, and absence. They are meditations on fragility, time, and the act of remembering.

Earlier in my career, after completing an MA at Chelsea in 1991, I worked across painting, installation, and performance. Today, although carving and painting remain at the heart of my practice, these formative years continue to inform my sensibility as I work through these slow meditative processes to transform materials into vessels for memory and emotion.

Artist Resume

Education

Chelsea College of Art and Design MA Fine Art

Brighton University BA (Hons) Fine Art

Prizes and Awards

Winner of the Art Gemini Prize for Sculpture 2024

Selected Group Shows

2025

Open 25, Tarpey Gallery, Castle Donington

Contemporary Art at Fox Lodge, Artwave, Fletching

Stone 2025, Falconhurst Estate, Kent

Gallery at Home Open, Abergavenny

100/50, Unit 1 Gallery and Workshop, London

South East Open Studios, Ashdown Pottery, Fairwarp

Artist Open House, 4 Portland Place, Brighton

‘No Hard Shoulder’, The Regency Town House, Hove

Artist Open House, Studio 21, Ditchling

Artist Open House, 11welbeck, Hove

[UNFOLD], The Vanner Gallery, Salisbury

2024

Winter Artist Open House, Portland Place, Brighton

‘Launch’, Electro Studios, St Leonards-on-sea

‘A minimal aesthetic’, Gallery 57, Arundel

Finalists Exhibition Art Gemini Prize 2024, London Lighthouse Gallery, London

Contemporary Art at Fox Lodge, Artwave, Fletching

Wells Art Contemporary, Wells Cathedral, Wells

‘Landmarked’, Gallery 57, Arundel

South East Open Studios, Ashdown Pottery, Fairwarp

‘Stillness’, Gallery 57, Arundel

Cuckmere Sculpture Exhibition, Coastguards Cottages, Seaford

Artist Open House, No 1 Rigden Road, Hove

Artist Open House, Portland Place, Brighton

2023

Artmaze Exhibition, Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, London

Contemporary Art at Fox Lodge, Artwave, Fletching

John Skelton and his Legacy, Artelium, Streat

South East Open Studios, Ashdown Pottery, Fairwarp

2022

Amanda Sumpter and Ysidro Pergamino, Atelier Beside the Sea, Brighton

Skeltons Sculpture Exhibition, Blabers Mead, Streat

Contemporary Art at Fox Lodge, Artwave, Fletching

South East Open Studios, Ashdown Pottery, Fairwarp

Publications

‘Amanda Sumpter’: Small volume written & published by An Nguyen with images by Taylor Littleton