Johnny White and Amanda Wray
Curated Exhibition

Festival: 2020

We were delighted to be approached by the Wirksworth Festival to curate the main exhibition at the Parish Rooms and Saint Mary’s Church in 2018. We chose to link the work together through a family theme. Wirksworth is our family home, the festival is a family occasion and our work, being accessible and interactive, is aimed at all ages of the family. It’s great to be doing something locally having previously worked together on art projects and exhibitions in Denmark, Belgium and across the UK. In the Parish Rooms we will be exhibiting a selection of our own work loosely based on our family experiences.

About Johnny and Amanda

Following an initial opportunity to collaborate on a commission in 1995 Johnny White and Amanda Wray have worked together on many projects enabling them to combine Johnny’s humorous kinetic style with Amanda’s quirky figurative sculptures. They have exhibited their artworks widely across Europe and have also employed their skills to complete many exciting performance and public art projects, often involving schools and communities.

Johnny White – Having enjoyed making unusual bicycles and playing with Meccano as a child Johnny went into mechanical engineering as an apprentice when he left school. He later changed course and studied art completing a ceramics degree at Cardiff. He started making kinetic sculptures in the 1980s and has been a freelance sculptor since 1988. His sculptures are usually humorous, often interactive and sometimes quite large. He has exhibited widely both in the UK and around Europe, his work is included in several public collections across Europe and his public art pieces are sited across the UK.

Amanda Wray – Amanda’s figurative style is meaningful, accessible and often tongue in cheek, she skilfully models clay in a lifelike manner with an added playful twist. She also works in mosaic and stone and she has made public artworks for outside Carlisle Castle, a number of parks in Sheffield and a 2m high head sculpture with a mosaic interior seat for two people for Fieldhead Hospital in Wakefield and has recently enjoyed working on prints.She is currently halfway through studying for an Art Therapy MA.