Born: 1958 Santiago, Chile
Year of Migration to the UK: 1997
Other name/s: Fernando Casasempere FRSS
Biography
Sculptor Fernando Casasempere was born in Santiago, Chile in 1958. In the 1980s, he was living in Spain where he attended the Scola Forma in Barcelona between 1982 and 1986, while also studying sculpture at the city's Escuela de Arte y Oficios between 1985 and 1986. After graduation he returned to Chile. Looking for a new challenge, however, Casasempere immigrated to London in 1997, bringing with him 12 tons of Chilean clay from his hometown of Santiago, including mixtures he developed with industrial mining waste.
Casasempere’s sculptural oeuvre explores the climate crisis, ecology, the environment, land and nature via the mediums of clay, ceramics and industrial materials. He frequently incorporates copper tailings in his work, known as ‘relave’ in Spanish, which are industrial waste byproducts from copper mining—a key industry and major export of Chile. By exploring humanity’s impact on the planet and the pressing socio-ecological crisis, Casasempere integrates elements of archaeology, geology, landscapes, and architecture, particularly from the perspective of his native Chile. The ecological theme, together with the use of natural materials, link him to the Land or Earth Art movement. However, Casasempere draws inspiration from a distinct cultural heritage, deeply influenced by Pre-Columbian art and Latin American architecture. His thinking about the relationship between art and the environment is also informed by his homeland, which has more than 40 active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes, making the idea of tectonic plates a regular component of the local collective consciousness. He is also influenced by traditional blue and white Chinese and European ceramics, particularly in the methodology of applying colour rather than in the finished style. The clay he brought to the UK is coloured by Chilean copper mining and drilling industrial waste procedures, creating a vein-like effect on the surface. Casasempere’s experimental approach to materiality also involves combining different types of clays that do not mix well together, resulting in pieces that appear to be on the verge of collapsing. When working with porcelain, he retains a geological essence, using its natural transparency in a unique method akin to watercolour. This technique creates a delicate striation of colours that mirrors the earth's layers. While Casasempere’s sculptures are often square solid blocks, they nonetheless capture a dynamic internal energy. This blend of ancient influences and modern environmental themes defines his practice and links historical craftsmanship with contemporary ecological discourse.
Since the 1980s, Casasempere has exhibited regularly in the UK and internationally and has executed several public commissions and large-scale installations. His installation of stoneware and porcelain, Back to Earth (2005), at the garden of the New Art Centre outside Salisbury in Wiltshire, gives the impression of both a geological and industrial setting. In 2006, at the Jerwood Sculpture Park at Ragley Park, Warwickshire (now closed) he executed a monumental sculpture for the exhibition Under the Forest that speaks to themes of nature and ecology. In 2012, his public installation, Out of Sync, in the courtyard of Somerset House in London, comprised 10,000 handmade clay flowers as a way of welcoming spring and the change of season. The installation, Second Skin at the Frieze Sculpture Park in Regent’s Park (2016) has a similar floral-botanical appearance from a distance, but is actually made of hard minerals. While sculpture is Casasempere's primary focus, he has also created an abstract and organic series of clay and ink paintings on felt, Salare (2019), portraying the surface of the salt flats of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. In 2022 TERRA: Fernando Casasempere, a major solo exhibition, and his first American presentation, was held at the Museum of San Diego, USA. The exhibition consisted of four immersive installations and the Salare paintings, encouraging the audience to think about the imprint of humanity on nature. In the same year, the installation Scratching the Surface at the London Mithraeum (site of a Roman temple) blended seamlessly with the gallery space and examined how new layers alter surfaces and usher the past into the present. Casasempere’s interest in archaeology, as a way to decode memories and access ecological and historical pasts, continues to significantly inspire his practice.
Casasempere, who is represented by the art dealer Adrian Sassoon, has received several international awards and recognitions, including the Scholarship Prize from the Andes Foundation in Colombia in 1992. In 2004, he was awarded the residency at the International Ceramic Centre, Guldagergård, in Denmark. More recently, in 2022, he was a finalist for the LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize in Seoul, South Korea.
Fernando Casasempere lives and works in London, England and is a Fellow of the Royal Soceity of Sculptors (FRSS). In the UK public domain, his work is represented in the V&A collection and his 2022 sculpture Geology Rebuilt was commissioned as part of the development of Tottenham Court Road underground station and Soho Place, London W1.
Related books
- Malgosia Szemberg, ed., Fernando Casasempere: Works 1991-2016 = Obras 1991-2016 (Berlin/Santiago: Hatje Cantz/Puro Chile, 2017)
- Juan Yolin, Fernando Casasempere: mi andadura, exh. cat. (Santiago: Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, 2016)
- Enrique Walker, Malgosia Szemberg, Tom Mannion, Michael Harvey, Out of Sync (Milan: Nava Milano, 2013)
Public collections
Related organisations
- Royal Society of Sculptors (Fellow )
Related web links
- Adrian Sassoon: Fernando Casasempere
- Elizabeth Fullerton, 'Fernando Casasempere', Sculpture: A Publication of the International Sculpture Center, 5 July 2022
- Fernando Casasempere On Clay
- Interview with Sculpture Network
- Official Page
- Royal Society of Sculptors
- Scratching the Surface: London Mithraeum
- Sculpture in the City
- Somerset House: 10,000 flowers
- TERRA: Fernando Casasempere
Selected exhibitions
- Scratching the Surface (solo exhibition), London Mithraeum, London (2022)
- TERRA: Fernando Casasempere (solo exhibition), San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego (2022)
- Second Skin (public installation), Regent’s Park, Frieze, London (2016)
- A Death (solo exhibition), Parafin, London (2015)
- Falla Ideologico (solo exhibition), Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Santiago (2012)
- Out of Sync (solo exhibition/public installation), Somerset House, London (2012)
- Bricks and Mortar (solo exhibition), New Art Centre, Roche Court, Salisbury (2011)
- Venice: City of Dreams? (group show), Sotheby’s, London (2007)
- Under the Forest (group show), Jerwood Sculpture Park, Ragley Hall, Warwickshire (2007)
- Back to Earth, New Art Centre, Salisbury (2005)
