Sophie Carnell is a contemporary silversmith living and working on Lunawanna-Alonnah, Bruny Island, Tasmania, where she is inspired by the stunning landscape surrounding her. After obtaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Tasmania, Carnell focused on contemporary jewellery and silversmithing and has continued to develop her practice through the completion of courses in metalsmithing and jewellery design. As a result, Carnell has been able to teach herself a variety of skills that have greatly informed the creation of her delicate sculptures.
Carnell seeks to illuminate the hidden and easily overlooked; to instil a sense of wonder and joy in the small and disregarded; to seek out the poetic in the unexpected; and to create space to question our connections to place. Most recently, this has expressed itself in the examination of the plant life of her environment, highlighting and accentuating its preciousness both through the use of scale and her chosen medium.
Working primarily with responsibly sourced Australian silver, Carnell fabricates her sculptures entirely by hand, finding it a powerful learning experience to create by observation and to find ways of transforming material into new forms. The slow and intricate process of sawing, hammering, bending, soldering, and sanding allows her to learn the intricate details of her subject matter and consider its fragility, as well as wonder at its fortitude.
Carnell has exhibited widely and her work is held in private collections locally and internationally. In 2021, in collaboration with Sarah Rayner, she won the Toowoomba Contemporary Wearables Award, as well as being a finalist in 2017; on both occasions, the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery acquired the works. Carnell has been a finalist in the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize (2024, 2018, 2014), the York Botanic Art Prize (2021) and the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize (2015). She has won residencies on King Island and at Bundanon, NSW, Scotland and Ireland.
