Everard Read|CIRCA Galleries are pleased to announce that artist Beth Diane Armstrong has won the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for 2017.

Fascinated by structure - organic, architectural, mathematical, psychological and conceptual - Beth Diane Armstrong is an artist of tremendous talent, courage and originality. At her core is an ability to skilfully craft and weave process and change in various media. Her technical prowess and ambitious projects, frequently on a monumental scale, have earned her a place amongst the most respected young sculptors in South Africa.

Armstrong uses the process of making as a way in which to orient herself in the world – following the trajectory of sensation, observation, translation and expression. For Armstrong, the intersection between her personal life and vision, and the structural and systematic aspects of her work, is paramount.

"Above all things, I am interested in the relationship between lines of various densities and 'loosenesses' and I find this kind of open/closed, push/pull, give/take structuring to be the lens through which I see the world and then engage with the world around me physically. Whether I am looking at things on a micro or macro, architectural or organic, conceptual or physical level, I seek out the feeling that structures that have both density and looseness give me".

Over the past several  years, Armstrong has worked predominantly on large-scale artworks made of mild and stainless steel, but she is also proficient in a range of materials and techniques including other sculpting media, printmaking, video, photography, drawing and installations.

Born in South Africa in 1985, Armstrong currently lives and works in Johannesburg. In 2010, she completed her Masters of Fine Art at Rhodes University, with distinction. Recent highlights include her sculptures at the Design Miami/Basel design fair in Basel, Switzerland, and at Design Miami, Florida – both in 2014. That same year saw the completion of a large permanent public artwork in Oostvoorne, in the Netherlands, commissioned by the Kern Kunst Westvoorne Foundation. Armstrong's first large-scale sculpture was bought by Standard Bank in 2013 and has been installed in its new building in Rosebank, Johannesburg. A 10-ton, site-specific public sculpture in Grahamstown’s newly built National English Literary Museum will be unveiled before the end of this year.

Watch the artist talk about her journey and winning the award here.