Biography
I was born in Dublin in 1974. After completing school in 1992 I did a certificate in Art and Design in DIT/ Mountjoy Square. After finishing this course I carried on with my art practice, while also working with a commercial set company and traveling in Europe. These trips started me on a love of traveling and in 1996 I went to Zimbabwe to spend time with the family behind the Africa calls stone sculpture gallery in Dublin. During my time there I visited local artists and started to carve the local stone. On return home I participated in a stone sculpture symposium with Dick Joynt, which helped me establish my work in stone within Ireland.
My work in addiction in an arts setting at this time also had a large influence on my work. In 2004 I moved from Dublin to Cork.
After a brief break from my work at this time for a few years I started exhibiting again in some group shows like Sculpture in Context and in local exhibition events, especially the annual exhibition in Ballymaloe run by Riche Scott sculpture.
Over the year I have continued working in the Arts by facilitating in schools and at festivals. My work with the heritage in schools scheme has been especially influential in the sense that it has expanded my own education of Irish traditions, folklore and craft.
2019 was an important year in my practice as I was awarded a funded residency in Uillin, West Cork Art Centre. This residency allowed me to focus on smaller clay work and to start the journey of using traditional craft materials in my own work.
Over the last decade I have also established a small illustration business Kilcoe Studios. As well as learning essential business skills this project has also immersed me in our native plant life and the cultural history of plants, which has in turn influenced my fine art practice.
Artists Statement
My sculptural work typically represents the human figure. I have expressed this in many ways in my primary material which is Irish limestone, all the time working within its limitations which dictates the finished work . I am not just interested in the physical figures, but what is represents – a symbol of who we all are, our behaviours and especially our spiritual needs.
In some sculptures the figure has been represented more realistically with detail and in others more shapely with no clear features. In recent figures they could almost be described as non-human, something which hints at my strong interest in the other world.
In more recent work I have been exploring working with smaller figures in clay. These can be observed together in groups and this work allows me to work with the figure as part of a whole, each individuals part in the greater picture.
In clay the work is mostly silent and careful and quiet. With stone there is a rhythm that is integral to the work. I deliberately choose to use hand tools and the process of working is as important as the outcome. This steady rhythmic work is very meditative and I believe this rhythmic part of living along with the seasons and cultural and religious rhythms of the week and year are crucial to a healthy mind and society.
I am also constantly fascinated by the materials that are available to us – specifically the ones in my locality – local minerals, rushes, dye colours etc. I am fascinated by how previous generations used them for both practical, cultural and religious reasons and I am eager to explore how I can, as an artist, take these materials and techniques into use in this very different modern world. This is ongoing work that I am experimenting with to incorporate into my practice
Sonia Caldwell C.V.
Kilcoe Skibbereen Co. Cork
087 0667871
Date of Birth – 16 December 1974
EDUCATION
2002-2003 Crawford College of Art, Cork Certificate in Arts and Empowerment.
1992 – 1993 College of Marketing and Design, Dublin 1 Certificate in Art and Design
1986 – 1992 Wesley College, Dublin 16 Leaving Certificate.
SOLO EXHIBITION
2025 Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre. Athmhúscail – Mixed media sculpture and installation.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS
2014 – 2025 Richie Scott Sculpture – annual sculpture exhibition at Ballymaloe, Co Cork.
2012 – 2025 West Cork Creates- annual showcase exhibition
2022 Earth Rising, IMMA
2022 & 2026 Boyle Arts festival exhibition
2020 Vue Art Fair RHA .
2018 Blue House gallery, Co Cork.
2010 – 2013 Millcove Sculpture Award, Co Cork.
2015 & 2018 Lavit gallery members exhibition, Cork city.
2012, 2013, 2026 West Cork Arts Centre annual members exhibition.
2010 & 2011 2020 Art gallery, North Mall, Cork.
2011 & 2013 Sculpture in Context, Botanic Gardens, Dublin.
COMMISSIONS and AWARDS
2024 Artist in residence in Duncairn Arts Centre Belfast. Shared Island project
2024 Fingal County Council Bursary Award – Developing performance and
masks making from local materials and working with a photographer and performers.
2024 Creative Places Award – series of craft workshops on West Cork Islands.
2023 Fingal County Council Bursary award – developing exhibition work.
2022 Community commission Drimoleague, West Cork – figure to celebrate work of women.
2021 Private commission – 1.5 metre stone sculpture
2019 Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre – Studio funded residency. 2 Months.
2019 Creative Ireland Grant – researching and making ‘Straw Boy costumes’ for the ‘Wran day’
celebrations, including doing community workshops.
2018 Cork county Council award for ‘The Skibbereen City project’
Working with 13 schools to make a paper city for the Arts Festival.
2012 Cork County Council Artists Bursary – to do a series of drawings and sculpting work with a
dancer.
SYMPOSIUMS & TRAVEL
1998 Cross cultural and Stone sculpture Symposium. Crann Studios, Enniscorthy
Hosted by Dick Joynt and Africa Calls Gallery, involving Zimbabwean and Irish Artists.
1996 3 months working with local artists in Zimbabwe learning stone sculpture, tied in with other
travel in the continent.
COLLECTIONS
Richie Scott Sculpture ‘Searching’ 2014
Killeen Group Headquarters. ‘Void 1 & 2’ 2016
Old Head Golf links Kinsale. ‘Life Forms’ 2018
Holles Street maternity hospital ‘You’ 1998
ART FACILITATION
Summary of work
2013 – 2026 Heritage in school scheme – Delivering workshop in schools on heritage crafts. See profile on heritage in school scheme- https://www.heritageinschools.ie/heritage- expert/about-heritage-specialists
2025 Weaving worlds project – Adult weaving based workshops in community settings.
2024 Creative Ireland Islands workshops onWest Cork islands.
2022 Earth Rising IMMA – workshops using native wild materials talk on creative and cultural
use of native Irish plants
2012 / 2013 Crafts council or Ireland – Bloom interactive craft event – conception to completion.
Straw súgán village and large scale weaving loom.
2012 – 2013 Crafts council of Ireland – Craft – ed schools programme
1999 – 2002 Merchants Quay project, Soilse treatment programme and Millenium carving project.
Working in an artistic capacity in drug treatment in Dublin .
PRESS –
2024 – Evening Echo article on heritage crafts.
2019 – Article in Evening Echo relating to my sculptural work in Ballymaloe annual exhibition.
