About
Natalie Finnemore’s sculptural practice operates within an expanded field of objecthood, where play and audience interaction are integral rather than supplementary. Her work engages with the behavioural scripts embedded in design, using them to activate and subtly destabilise the legacies of minimalist sculpture. In doing so, it resists passive spectatorship, instead creating situations in which use, mis-use, and interpretation remain open and in flux.
Drawing on experience across furniture design, homeware, and educational sculpture projects, Finnemore uses the familiar language of functional objects while withholding their expected clarity. Her works hover between utility and autonomy, inviting forms of engagement that feel both intuitive and slightly estranged. Through this approach, she foregrounds the reciprocal and often ambiguous relationship between object and user, where meaning is not fixed but continuously shaped through interaction.
CV
Commissions
Bears of Sheffield, Sheffield Children's Hospital Charity, Sheffield, 2021
Support Structures, John Lewis & Partners Leeds for Yorkshire Sculpture International, 2019
Portobello Plays, The Hepworth, Wakefield, 2017
PUTT – PUTT #2 | Turf Projects, Ruskin Square, Croydon, 2014
The Tetley Resource Space Commission | Production in collaboration with LYON & LYON, The Tetley, Leeds, 2013
Solo Exhibitions
2024
Cyanotype Prints, Bon, Sheffield
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023
Autumn Almanac III, Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield
2022
Autumn Almanac, Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield
2019
Associated Matter, The Bothy Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield
Construction House: Leisure Time, S1 Artspace, Sheffield
2017
Drawing for Sculpture, 20 - 21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe
Everything Flows, Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
2016
Keep The Dust Off, S1 Studios, Sheffield
Left Hand to Back of Head, Object Held Against Right Thigh, The Bluecoat, Liverpool
2015
I Can Read With My Eyes Shut, S1 Artspace, Sheffield
Bare With Me, North Contemporary | Pyramid Arts Centre, Warrington
THINK.PLAY.DO, The Tetley, Leeds
You think the only people who are people..., Two Queens, Leicester
Forming Thoughts, One Thoresby Street, Nottingham
2014
Three Act Structure | S1 Members Show, S1 Artspace, Sheffield
Overseasoned w/ It's All Tropical, Gage Gallery, Sheffield
IN CIRCULATION | Summer Exhibition & Portfolio, APG Works, Sheffield
PEACHY, curated by Salt + Powell, Artemis House, York
2013
Fever Pitch: selected by David McLeavy, Speedwell Works, Sheffield
Contemporary Art Society Christmas Fair, Mirabel Studios, Manchester
Our Times No. 2 · 2013 · Mexico, Leeds
Defcon Salon 1 : Members’ Show 2013, EMBASSY, Edinburgh
S1 Studios Spotlight Exhibition: Charlotte Morgan & Natalie Finnemore, S1 Artspace, Sheffield
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, ICA, London
2012
Salon Art Prize, Griffin Gallery, London
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, LJMU Copperas Building: Liverpool Biennial
Salon Art Prize, Matt Roberts Arts, London
S1 Members Show 2011, S1 Artspace, Sheffield
2011
S1 Introduces, S1 Artspace
2010
PRISM 9, CADS, Sheffield
OUTLINE, Unit 3B, Sheffield
Awards
A-N Bursary Recipient, 2022-2023
Yorkshire Sculpture International Associate Artist, Yorkshire Sculpture International, 2019
Shortlisted for The New Situationists Commission, Situations, Spike Island, 2013
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, 2012
Shortlisted for Beers Lamberts Award for Emerging Art, 2012
S1 Artspace Bursary Award Programme, 2011
Projects
Object Abuse, Curated by McCormack and Gent, 2012
Residencies
The Penthouse Residency #1, The Penthouse, Manchester. 2013
Publications
The Tetley | A New Reality Part 1, 2013
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, 2012
Being an Artist: Then and Now, Axis Notes, 2012
Fairs
Hybrid Art Fair, Petit Palace Santa Barbara Hotel, Madrid, 2018
The Manchester Contemporary, Manchester Central, Manchester, 2017
Teaching
Collaborative Print Workshop during Open Studios, Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield, 2021
Block Printing Workshop, Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield, 2021
Support Structures Children's Sculpture Workshop, John Lewis & Partners Leeds, 2019
Portobello Plays Workshops | The Hepworth Wakefield, Sandal Castle Primary School, 2016