Anna Masters

Born: UK, 1982.  Based in Kent, UK

Staffordshire University, (First Class Hons in Fine Art, 2004)

Anna Masters is a mixed media and installation artist, whose practice examines the transformational qualities of time and context on value and symbolism.

Masters employs a range of organic and found materials, including petals, butterflies, clock parts, optical lenses, bank notes and costume jewellery. The materials allude to personal histories and are often loaded with cultural symbolism. The progression of time, however, strips these materials of their value and meaning: the flowers die; jewellery breaks and stops being worn; bank notes move out of circulation; the clocks stop ticking.

By suspending the materials on clear nylon, Masters creates the illusion that the materials are floating mid-air - defying gravity and perhaps defying time too. Her installations seem to capture a resonant moment, and suspend it there to be experienced, moved through and examined. By recontextualising the materials in their new compositions, Masters can be seen to actively resist further deterioration and reassign a sense of meaning and value, albeit ambiguous and precarious. The compositions appear fragile, prone to change, prone to succumbing to the natural forces of time and gravity. Compounding this, many of her installations are time-limited, existing only for a short time before being destroyed, lasting only as a memory for those who experienced it. In this way, Masters’ works allude to the temporality of the moment, the fragility of memory and the impermanence of the values and meanings that we ascribe to the things around us.

Anna graduated from Staffordshire University in 2004 with a First Class Honours Degree in Fine Art, and subsequently gained a Distinction for her Masters degree in Art Policy and Management from Birkbeck, University of London. She was awarded a grant from Arts Council England in 2013 for the development of her mixed media works. She has exhibited widely across the UK, Europe and United States and is represented by galleries in the UK and Europe.

EDUCATION

2005        Birkbeck, University of London, MA Art Policy & Management
2004        Staffodshire University, BA (Hons) Fine Art

RESIDENCIES / AWARDS

2013        Arts Council England Grant

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2018        Suspended Animation London

2016        Moments London

2014        Time is now solo London

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2018        Variation 18 London

2016       Variations 16 London

2015       Variations London

2015       Hurricane season joint exhibition Antwerp

2015       Flux:Temporal suspense joint London