Esther Rolinson is a British visual artist who explores the use of new media technology as well as long-established artistic languages such as drawing and sculpture. She studied Visual and Performing Arts at Brighton University graduating in 1993. At the start of her career, Rolinson conceived installations for dance performances. The immersive environments she designed as theatrical scenes expanded and gained autonomy. She then created large scale installations, public artworks and sculptural structures that involve the viewer and invites the audience to participate in the artistic experience.
GATHERING, Esther Rolinson | 10 Prints by 10 Artists, Anise Gallery, 2021
Her interest in bringing consciousness to our sensations led her to work with light. Due to its immediacy and potential to affect our senses, light became an important feature of her artistic production, one among a wide range of materials that she uses. Another key element is computer programming. In her work the use of new media is as essential as pencil and paper. Most of Esther Rolinson’s artworks have as a starting point drawings made by hand. In a sophisticated gesture, she constructs complex systems and forms that later she extends into three dimensions in her installations. In many ways, simple manual processes and advanced digital solutions are placed side by side.
Ten Thousand Thoughts, Esther Rolinson | Anise Gallery, 2019
Over the last 20 years, she has worked nationally and internationally, making permanent and temporary public space commissions. She has exhibited in museums, galleries, art centers and festivals and has a long list of solo and group shows. Esther Rolinson is an award-winning artist and has artworks in prominent collections such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. In 2016 she won the Lumen Prize Sculpture and 3D Awards and the ArtChi First Prize San Jose California. Recently, she was appointed the lead artist for new a £80 million building in the Musgrove Park Hospital, in Taunton, England.
Esther Rolinson was born in 1971 in Coventry, and lives in Hastings, South East England.