Sarah Kudirka
Details
Name
Sarah Kudirka
Job title
Artist
About
Sarah Kudirka is an artist fascinated by the shapes and edges of things. She makes paintings on linen, instant film snaps and found objects.
Founder/curator of K U D I R K A*, an artist-led ‘sometimes space’ non-profit in Glasgow.
“You know when you find something in your pocket that you picked up then forgot? Familiar but unknown, a wee treasure, your fingers feel around its surfaces, its edges. Not until you pull it out of your pocket and see it in your hand do you know what it is. My art has long been about exploring the shapes and edges of stuff, kind of like that.”
Kudirka’s oil paintings are characterised by iteratively made, obliterated, incised, finely lined, scratched and layered paint surfaces, often reworked over and again. Recent series have focused on shell-like forms and bowls, drawing from them a metaphor for diaspora, ancient traditions of human journeys across water and our human capacity for compassion. Her semi-abstract forms drift apart and crowd together, are worn down and buoyed up, float or run aground and find themselves in shared space needing to make room for others, their edges becoming merged or porous.
Group/solo shows in Scotland recently include SSA shows at the Royal Scottish Academy, An Tobar, Mull, and The Maclaurin Gallery, Ayr; the ArtCarbootSale at Tramway; Blue at Stallan Brand; Tatha Gallery; Kirkcudbright Galleries; South Block Project Space; and The Briggait, Glasgow.
Sarah worked in the Director’s office (for Sir Nicholas Serota then Vicente Todoli) at Tate Modern, and was a Board Member & Trustee of Acme while based in London, until in 2017 she moved to Scotland. She served on the Council Member of the Society of Scottish Artists of which she is now an elected Professional Member. Residencies include Cove Park (August 2024) and Research Artist in Residence at Project Ability, Glasgow (February 2018).
Research interests include the Lithuanian diaspora in Scotland. Her paper “The Photos by Women You Just Won’t See” was given during the Second Morton Symposium on Women & Photography in Scotland, convened by the National Trust for Scotland and Glasgow Women’s Library [October 2020] and published in the journal Studies in Photography, Spring 2021.
Experienced in commissioning and delivery-planning for art in the public realm working with architects, developers and public sector clients. In 2017 Sarah was the sole artist on the selection panel for a series of sculptures commissioned as part of a major London-wide infrastructure project, works by chosen artist Hew Locke being installed in 2025.
Sarah worked with Arup from 2006 consulting at Global Board-level, she initiated the role of the engineering firm’s first ever Artist Inhouse working on a portfolio of projects, (2011-13). Personally collaborated with Sir John Sorrell CBE to develop concept for a series of creative nights designed to seed new connections and collaborations between people from diverse creative disciplines. Sarah was the series founder, working remotely with teams worldwide to roll out The Penguin Pool sessions in Beijing, Cape Town, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Manchester, Melbourne, Milan, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney & Toronto (23 one-off events run sequentially in 15 cities worldwide, across duration of 21 months).
Kudirka (née Davenport) holds BA hons Fine Art (first, 1990) and MA in Sculpture Studies (distinction, 1991) from The University of Leeds, where she was also awarded The Passey Prize In Art, 1990. Funded by the Henry Moore Sculpture Trust, she researched the catalogue raisonné of Austin Wright (1911-97), which was published in James Hamilton’s monograph on the sculptor, Lund Humphries / The Henry Moore Foundation, 1994.
Sarah is partially-deaf, but not registered disabled.
*K U D I R K A, which launched in June 2024, is a developing artist-led project that aims to lift others up, particularly Scottish women artists without gallery representation. Plans for this contemporary arts space on the groundfloor of the artist’s home include shows, events, gigs and invited artist sojourns.
Region
Glasgow