Aileen Neillie is a graduate from Glasgow School of Art (1991 – 1995) with a BA (hons) in Sculptural Ceramics. She currently lives and works in the Highlands.

Much of her 2D work relates to the textures and surfaces visible in her Ceramics. Neillie regards herself as a mixed media artist and has an interest in the way in which materials react and respond to each other, continuously working in an experimental manner. She initially works from a source which is taken due to the potential meaning or symbolism of the object. She abstracts and distorts the shape in order that the viewer is challenged to consider the concept.

Her new pieces of work are centred on personal experiences and how behaviours passed down from the generation before, based on social norms and acceptability, impacts upon the freedom to be ourselves. This is shown in the use of text as well as in the layering of panels used to demonstrates the idea of metaphorically being “held down” as if drowning, hence, the use of the lungs and chest.