KATY GILLAM-HULL

Environmental & Narrative

Katy Gillam-Hull is a crafts artist who graduated from University of Hertfordshire with a BA in Contemporary Applied Arts in 2015, with a term spent studying metalwork at Oslo Academy of the Arts. Since graduation she has completed a long-term residency with the Museum of St Albans that resulted in 3 installations over 3 years. She has also developed works for other museums and galleries such as Ruthin Crafts Centre and Mint London. She teaches jewellery making at Made by Ore, her workshop in London.

As a crafts artist Katy Gillam-Hull makes work fuelled by curiosity and informed by historical research and imagination alike. She predominantly works in precious metals incorporating found objects, often pieces of ceramic or glass. Whether she is working with a museum’s collection or her own finds from mudlarking she often considers the forgotten beauty or narrative of objects. In response she creates intricate pieces and art jewellery that intrigue the viewer, revealing this hidden past or preciousness and showing the found or historical item in a new and reverential light. This fixation with the forgotten, fragmented and broken drives her research and collections, not only of objects but of histories and stories that beg to be told. Her works, rooted in an appreciation for heritage crafts, reference traditional skills and present themselves as a kind of contemporary artefact, made to highlight the hidden and commemorate the lost.