Eva Rothschild

Eva Rothschild was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1971 and lives and works in London. Her practice is primarily sculptural and encompasses sculpture, installation, drawing, and other forms of spatial intervention. Working with materials including aluminium, steel, wood, leather, fabric, Perspex, and Jesmonite, she investigates the relationships between material, form, space, and perception. Rothschild’s work is characterised by a sustained engagement with the possibilities of sculpture and with the ways in which objects acquire meaning through their physical and spatial context. Her sculptures often combine simple geometric structures with organic or irregular forms, creating works that occupy an intermediate position between object, architecture, and environment. Her practice engages with the history of modernist and Minimalist sculpture while introducing references to spirituality, symbolism, popular culture, and contemporary social experience. Material plays a central role in Rothschild’s approach. Rather than treating materials simply as neutral supports, she explores their physical qualities, associations, and capacity to alter the way a space is perceived. Her works can appear simultaneously solid and precarious, monumental and intimate, inviting viewers to consider sculpture not only as an autonomous object but also through its relationship with movement, architecture, and the body. Rothschild studied Fine Art at the University of Ulster in Belfast and completed an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. She was elected a Royal Academician in 2014 and has maintained a significant connection with the Royal Academy and its Schools. Her work has been presented extensively in the United Kingdom and internationally, including exhibitions at institutions such as the South London Gallery, The Hepworth Wakefield, the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne, and Kunsthalle Zürich. In 2019, Rothschild represented Ireland at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia with *The Shrinking Universe*. Presented at the Arsenale, the exhibition brought together a group of sculptures addressing a political and environmental climate through Rothschild’s characteristic engagement with materials and spatial form. The Biennale described the work in relation to urban dystrophy, consumer culture, environmental damage, and the imagery of borders and urban defences. Her practice also includes public and architectural projects in which sculpture is conceived in direct relation to its surrounding environment. Across these different contexts, Rothschild maintains a sustained interest in how physical structures influence perception and how sculptural forms can generate symbolic and psychological associations. Through her rigorous exploration of material, geometry, space, and perception, Rothschild has developed a distinctive approach to contemporary sculpture. Her works remain attentive to the formal language of modernist sculpture while opening it toward questions of symbolism, spirituality, politics, and the ways in which objects and environments shape human experience.