Art / Artist of the Month
Artist of the month: Victoria Topping
Victoria Topping is a digital collage artist, combining textures and images to create unique pieces of artwork. Her A1 piece, Soul Dancing, is available to buy exclusively through Bristol24/7 and Hidden Gallery, hand finished herself with gold leaf accents.
Having studied Illustration at UWE, Victoria has a longstanding connection the city. Although she now lives in Bath, where her studio is based, Victoria says Bristol still “has a large part of my heart”.
After finishing her degree ten years ago, the artist went on to organise soul nights in Stokes Croft and started designed posters for the events. From there, she started designing posters for other people and organisations, eventually designing record sleeves for music labels. She now exhibits her work throughout the UK but her close partnership with the music industry remains – she is artist director at On The Corner Records.
is needed now More than ever
Artist Victoria Topping at work
Describing Soul Dancing, her piece for sale with Bristol24/7 and Hidden Gallery, Victoria says: “It’s reminiscent of the lovely, hot summer nights I spent in the city, dancing in clubs until late.”
The artwork was created digitally, on an iPad and by collaging by hand. “I’m a big fan of using technology in my work,” Victoria says. “I juxtapose it with more traditional techniques.”
Soul Dancing is a giclée print and part of a limited run of 50, “inspired by soul and jazz music, from the colour palette to the images themselves”.
For Victoria, its unsurprising that her most notable moment of her career so far is music related: “I did a record sleeve for one of my celestial heroes, SUN RA, through Art Yard Records. If you haven’t heard of him, he’s well worth checking out.”
Looking to the future, the artist has been working on a picture book. Mytholica comes out in September and is “incredibly exciting and very colourful”. Victoria’s looking forward to people finally being able to see it, and to continue exhibiting her eclectic, bright collages around the UK.
Soul Dancing
Soul Dancing, an A1 giclee print and limited edition of 50 is £300 and available to buy at www.bristol247.com/shop
Read more: Artist of the month: Chitra Merchant
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