Sarah Wills-Brown

My work investigates the emotional and sensory dimensions of architecture, the quiet, often unseen ways that built environments carry atmosphere, memory and lived experience. I am drawn to what cannot be held but is deeply felt: shadow, absence and the traces of time. Through light, material and surface, I make these fleeting sensations visible and tactile, to hold something of the ephemeral before it disappears.

Shadows are central to my practice, acting as metaphors for memory and psychological space, present yet unreachable. Drawn to the silhouettes cast by Brutalist and post-war Modernist architecture, I use them to give form to the immaterial, capturing the fragile tension between presence and loss.

My process involves close physical engagement, walking, observing and recording shadow forms in bright, sunlit environments. These observations
form the basis for my prints, collages and sculptures built through layering and repetition. I work with materials that respond to light and form; Perspex and dichroic films transmit shifting colour, whilst utilitarian materials such as wood and cardboard lend structure and tactility, creating a dialogue between solidity and impermanence.

I am a sculptor and printmaker with a degree in Graphic Design and many years’ experience teaching Art and Design in London and Oxfordshire. In 2019, I stepped away from teaching to return to my own practice, completing an MFA in Fine Art with Distinction at Oxford Brookes University in 2020.

Since then, I have focused on developing my studio work and have exhibited in the UK, USA, Iceland, Germany and Austria, including ING Discerning Eye, RWA Open and Wales Contemporary. I am an alumna of New Platform Art, a recipient of an A-N Artists Information Company bursary (2025), and an associate member of Oxford Printmakers Co-operative.