Francis Upritchard

In collaboration with Kate MacGarry, London, we are delighted to have Francis Upritchard’s 2021 sculpture, Eels in Mud newly sited in the sculpture park. Francis Upritchard’s work is also on display in a solo exhibition, ‘Sing Siren’, at Kate MacGarry until 12 July 2025.

Stooping over the verdant pond here at Roche Court, the strange and uncanny figure’s elongated arms drape to the ground. Hanging from his hands, a swarm of eels twist and contort, some arising from the still green water. In both the eels and the figure, the texture of the skin is rough, sagging and shrivelled, almost as if they were made from fabric. This is the result of Upritchard’s unique process of working, as many of her bronze pieces begin with a 1:5 maquette made from balata rubber. A material that Upritchard has been working with since discovering it in a market in Brazil in 2004, balata rubber is a precious natural substance which becomes malleable when heated and must be manipulated in a cold-water bath. The pliable maquettes gain form and character, as her hands combine imagination and intuition at great speed, allowing the works to retain a sense of immediacy and movement.

Compelling and often eerie, Francis Upritchard’s work stems from inspirations that include mythology, folklore, science fiction and the work of Quentin Blake. She also often draws from antiquity, as with her Barbican Centre exhibition of centaurs and humans influenced by the Parthenon Reliefs.

Born in 1976 in Ngāmotu / New Plymouth, Aotearoa / New Zealand, Francis Upritchard studied fine art at Ilam School of Fine Arts in Christchurch, graduating in 1997. After relocating to London in 1998, Upritchard co-founded the artist-run space, Bart Wells Institute with painter Luke Gottelier.

Francis Upritchard
Eels in Mud, 2021
Bronze
150 x 230 x 50 cm
59 x 90 ½ x 19 ⅗ in.

In the 2000s, Upritchard showed regularly in the UK and New Zealand, with residencies at Camden Art Centre, London, and the Auckland Art Gallery in New Zealand. She was awarded the Walters Prize in 2006, and in 2009, represented New Zealand at the 53rd Venice Biennale alongside painter Judy Millar. Upritchard’s work has been exhibited globally since, with shows including A Hand of Cards, Nottingham Contemporary (2012); the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, Ohio, USA (2012); Potato Poem, Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan (2013); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA (2014); the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2014); Wetwang Slack, Barbican Centre, London (2018-9); Big Fish Eat Little Fish, Museum Dhont-Dhaenens, Belgium (2020); Surf’n’Turf, Kate MacGarry, London (2022); A Loose Hold, Kunsthaus Pasquart, Biel, Switzerland (2022) and Any Noise Annoys an Oyster at Kunsthalle Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark in 2024.

In 2022, Francis Upritchard was selected by the Art Gallery of New South Wales to undertake a large-scale commission, Here Comes Everybody, unveiled outside the Naala Badu building at the new Sydney Modern in Australia.