Biography
Sian Hoolahan (b. Chichester, West Sussex, UK 1965) studied at Worthing College of Design and Camberwell College of Arts under Gillian Lowndes (gaining a First-class BA Hons degree, 1985-88). She is a ceramic sculptor who has been exploring female wellbeing and care for the environment throughout her artistic career. As a young girl she began creating art as a means of dealing with her mother’s mental health issues and then later with her own personal fight against breast cancer.
Hoolahan has lived and worked for many decades in London. She has participated in group exhibitions: Hot off the Press, Tullie House, Carlisle (1996), which toured around the UK at various galleries and the Crafts Council), highlighting makers using ceramics and print techniques; at Rangers House (English Heritage), Blackheath, London (1998); CGP 3st Annual Open Exhbitition, Southwark Park, London (2015) and has held open studios at Coldharbour Studios (Camberwell), and Whirled Art studios (Sydenham) (2017-present). She has had solo exhibitions at Contemporary Applied Arts (1997) and at The Model House, Bull Ring, Llantrisant, Wales (1998).
She creates poetic and surreal small scale ceramic sculptures and tile panels decorated with transfers. Our interconnections to each other and both our internal and external landscapes are her major themes. She combines different clays and hand paints her glazes. Each piece goes through several firings to different temperatures. She then paints her pieces using low temperature on-glaze colours and ceramic transfer images until complete.
Concern for the environment and recycling are a big part of Hoolahan’s philosophy and outlook. She is trying to do the least harm with her art practice. She creates art both in ceramics and on paper and challenges herself to recycle, repurpose and reuse all her art materials. She is drawn to using collage, both in her 2D and 3D work. She is interested in complex relationships and expressing emotions that appear to be opposite to each other but are often experienced at the same time: like comforting insecurity or calm impatience. Contrasting colours, images and objects represent and give the element of surprise at both the diversity and the complex balance of life. Her work reflects that our emotions are fluid they can swiftly change like the air, blowing freely and giving the breath of life one moment: then stultifying and stifling the next.
