Abigail Humphries

Abigail Humphries’ practice centres on sand and acrylic, a material language refined over two decades into richly textured, large-scale works that blurs the line between painting and sculpture.

Drawn to sand for its evocations of time, impermanence, and fragility, she crafts geological surfaces - enduring slabs preserving fleeting moments of time. Her near life-size, featureless figures transcend identity, emerging symbiotically from the sand as guides for universal feeling, memory, and reflection. Narrative drives the work but stays open-ended: anonymous poses, subtle body language, and modulated light invite viewers to project their own stories, evoking curiosity, empathy, and the quiet power of connection.

Her physical, intuitive process unfolds over weeks, sparked by a memory or feeling. Layers build organically, with shifts in colour, gesture, and texture reflecting evolving emotions - symbolism woven through the sand’s earthy weight and figures’ unspoken nuances. Influences include Jo Spence and Rosy Martin’s therapeutic phototherapy, which revealed image-making’s psychological potential, alongside the Old Masters - Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Titian - whose mastery of chiaroscuro and gesture intensifies her emotional resonance...

2001 - Photography - 1st Class Honours Degree, Derby University
1998 - Art Foundation - Derby University

FLUX Exhibition, London - September 2026
H-art, Ludlow - September 2026
Delta Galleries, Berlin - August 2026
Plas Glyn-y-Weddw - Summer Exhibition 2026
The Other Art Fair London - March 2026
The Other Art Fair London - October 2025
H-Art - September 2025
RHS Malvern - 2025
Ragley Hall - 2025
Hammond Galleries - 2024
Greenstage Gallery - Winter Exhibition, December 2024 - January 2015
Ludlow Assembly Rooms - 2012