Sight-read

Sight-read is a two person exhibition by Beth Cowey and Sophia Vigne Welsh presenting paintings and works on paper. Made using indexical processes of mark-making and limited material vocabularies, the works present gestures and make references to parameters of the body and the musical score.

Limbs, meters, sequences, intervals; the loops of paper’s curl or of a body meeting a surface again and again. Directions, groupings; the weight and hum of materials, sinking into or sitting atop a surface. Sight-reading, in music, is the practice of reading and performing a piece of music notation that the performer has not seen or learned before. Non-linguistic, embodied reading. The piece is unfamiliar, the piece is stayed with.

The Clyde Hopkins Mentoring Award provides a legacy for former A.P.T Artist and Honorary Member, the late Clyde Hopkins.  In honour of the positions, he held as Head of Art Department at both Winchester School of Art and Chelsea College of Art, the Award supports emerging artists to bridge the gap between education and professional practice.

This is the first year of the Clyde Hopkins Award. The award has provided a free studio space for a year, alongside regular mentoring for two emerging artists, whose practice is focused on painting. We are delighted to introduce Beth and Sophia’s work, mentored this past year by APT artists Alice Wilson and David Webb.

Beth Cowey is an artist based between London and Glasgow. Beth works across painting, print, object-making and installation to make works with temporal, musical and linguistic resonances. Beth works in a process-based way and foregrounds material exploration, recently working with only rice paper, oil paint and beeswax. Beth graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2024 with an MA in Painting and previously graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 2018. She is the recipient of the Clyde Hopkins Mentoring Award 2024 and the Aidan Threlfall Travel Scholarship 2024 and was also shortlisted for the Valerie Beston Award.

Sophia Vigne Welsh is an Irish artist currently based in London. Prior to this, she lived and worked in Lisbon and Los Angeles. Sophia graduated from the Royal College of Art in September 2024 with an MA in Painting and earned  her BFA from the National College of Art & Design, Dublin in 2016.

Sophia challenges the limits of mark making and materials to build space and investigate the emotional and physical experience of her environment. She employs non-traditional materials and application methods to subvert conventional norms, offering a subtle critique of art history and institutional frameworks. Through rigorous improvisation the surface is activated, kept open and alive with fierce intention.

She is the recipient of the prestigious Clyde Hopkins Award, which provides a studio and mentorship at APT Studios in Deptford, London. Her work has been commissioned by notable brands such as Guinness, Roe & Co. Whiskey and Hen’s Teeth, and her practice is supported by the Irish Arts Council.