Šárka Darton

Šárka Darton is a multiple award-winning artist and an international tutor and lecturer in fine art. Her work is held in private and corporate collections in the UK and internationally. Born in the Czech Republic in 1972, now lives and works in the UK. Her multimedia practice explores the relationships between people, places and architecture, examining the notion of identity in the context of our occupation of ever-changing space and time. Darton studied Art and Design in SUPS Turnov, Czech Republic, specialising in stonecutting and engraving before winning an academic scholarship to study enamelling at Dresden School of Art and Design in 1987. After a short career as a restorer of paintings and wooden sculptures at the Museum of Eastern Bohemia, Darton moved to the UK in 1993 where she studied jewellery and fashion design. In 2005 she graduated from the University of Chichester with a first-class degree in Fine Art and in 2015 Darton has been awarded MFA (Masters of Fine Art) from University of Sussex, UK. Her postgraduate career has seen her undertake several private and corporate commissions for mural paintings, including one for the Earl of March at GoodWood, West Sussex, UK. To date, Darton has had 18 solo exhibitions in the Czech Republic, Italy and the UK and 39 group participations in The UK, Italy, USA, France, Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Morocco among them the important participation at the 57th Venice Biennale where she was commissioned to designed a dress for the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the death of Diana the princess of Wales.

Notable accolades also include the overall First Prize at Italian Trionnale in Verona, Italy (2017), receiving a Lorentium Prize at Florence Biennale, Florence, Italy (2015) and exhibiting at the Musee du Louvre, Paris, France (2016 and 2017).

“Addressing issues of identity and the relationship between people, places and architecture, my art is about the process of looking and seeing: our awareness of the time and space that we occupy. Like many artists who come to live in a different country to that of their childhood and adolescence, I see my own identity as somewhat ambiguous and use my art as a means of working through this ambiguity.

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“Always looking for new ways in which my art will create a space, rather than simply occupy it, my aim is to give the viewer a sense of being within the work and not just standing in front of it.”