Sofia Barton is a Multidisciplinary artist born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne who creates contemporary artworks influenced by nature and heritage. Her works are often comprised of bright colour palettes, heavily inspired by everything from her Punjabi culture to rich textiles, and architecture to vintage matchboxes. Influenced by everyday objects she creates pieces depicting backgrounds and context of places, merging the traditional with a careful study of a modern society.
The illustrator tells us; “I have memories from the age of three of my grandad smoking in his flat in Benwell, in the West End of Newcastle, whilst telling me stories from the Partition and showing me his Indian matchboxes.” The partition of India in 1947 divided British India into two independent dominions: India and Pakistan. This caused the death of 200,000–2 million people, and displacement of 10–20 million. “I didn’t realise it at the time, but our family had fled for Britain due to that event, avoiding poverty and starvation,” says Sofia.
For this reason, Sofia has always had a fascination with heritage, and awareness of the depth of history and places. She enjoys recreating objects with their stories or events behind them. Keeping her Grandad’s matchbox collection in mind, Sofia drew on this idea to make different ones for various locations, with symbology and vintage patterns.
In 2020/21 she was the first South Asian Artist to have an outdoor art exhibition in the North East. She celebrated Middlesborough through making a series of matchboxes printed on large aluminium prints, commissioned by the local council and Navigator North.
With receiving her DYCP grant this year, Sofia hopes to create more of these artworks, involving more printing techniques, and to explore the history of ethnic minorities and LGBTQIA+ history in the area.
@sofiabartonillustration
www.sofiabarton.co.uk
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