Colin Booth

b. Gateshead
Lives and works in St. Leonards on sea, East Sussex, UK

Institute of Play (detail), tulip wood, cellulose paint, 2 x 2 x 1m, 2010-11
Institute of Play (detail), tulip wood, cellulose paint, 2 x 2 x 1m, 2010-11

Colin Booth’s installations look at the relationship between the historic or already existing and the contemporary or new. His work holds both a personal narrative and a broader reference to early modernism and the built environment. It explores relationships between form and function, art and transformation and the fragmentary and transient nature of our material environment.

Colin's working process begins as a response to materials. The found objects are usually drawn from the environment in which he lives and works. Often they are things which have been used, abandoned or overlooked. Colin then collects these found objects and stores them until he finds a use for them in his practice. It is this physical process of collecting, sorting and then assembling which is fundamental to his working methodology.

Colin studied a BA (Hons) in Fine Art at Northumbria University, before undertaking a MA Fine Art from Brighton University. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including 'Institute of Play' (solo commission for V&A Museum of Childhood, London, 2010 and Laing Art Gallery, 2011); 'Jesus Wept' (neon text commission,The SPACE, St Leonards on Sea, 2012); International Sculpture Show (Sanyi Wood Sculpture Museum, Taiwan, 2012); the nothing new (neon text commission, Cheriton Lights, Folkestone, 2014); OMNIA SOMNIA (solo exhibition, Updown Gallery, Ramsgate, 2014). Colin also founded Electro Studios and Gallery Complex in St. Leonards on Sea in 1997.

The artist was in the following exhibition:
Cities of Ash

Links :
http://www.colinboothart.co.uk/
  • Jesus Wept, neon, 2 x 0.5m, 2012-14
  • Metropolis (detail), found wood, size variable, 2008-10
  • Streamline (detail), found birch ply, size variable, 2008-14
  • Archetypes, foam rubber, wood, MDF, size variable, 2010
  • Asymmetria (detail), found MDF, size variable, 2008
  • Institute of Play (detail), tulip wood, cellulose paint, 2 x 2 x 1m, 2010-11