About:
I live and work in the Brecon Beacons with my painter wife Menna Angharad. I started my inevitable return to art in my early 30s with a foundation in the Sir John Cass institute and completed a masters at Cardiff in my early 40s.
The paired theme started as a response to Brancusi’s Kiss which I have long admired, particularly for his portrayal of the lovers as equal in stature, which is at odds with most other lovers such as Rodin or Klimpt where the man is above and seeming to dominate. This implied equality of the sexes or indeed couples carries throughout my series.
Ensemble was initially conceived in stone, but time, cost and setup constraints led to the return to wood as my base material. This return to wood has proved to be a very creative juncture in the development of my work. The larger scale works in stone I had been developing were surprisingly simple to transpose into my world of wood.
Each work in the paired series is made from the same tree, this same source signifies our base sameness no matter the perceived differences. I have been absorbed by the space between and the methods of joining. The wood for me represents nature, the metal I use represents nurture; these pieces are my material exploration of our place in this eternal relationship.
For me all wood has an inherent goodness - this represents our bountiful world and the miracle of life itself in a universe largely devoid of such a phenomenon. Trees and timber are a resource that is easily renewable providing us with an abundant material for our future, this relationship plays a part in my working thoughts and in some of my work. Wood has a natural verticality which engenders anthropomorphic qualities and this work plays with the relationship between us and wood-us and nature - to arouse feelings of empathy or at least to draw connections in people towards wood and by extension trees. In some pieces this flirtation with anthropomorphism is enhanced and in other pieces it may absent.
In my carved work, I distil objects down to simple, expressive shapes, focusing on the essentials of the subject rather than its literal form and on the inherent physical qualities of the materials: the smoothness of marble, the translucence of alabaster, the roughness or grain of wood. The physicality of the materials themselves and the working of them are as important to me as the subject matter.
Occasionally my wife and I have open studios at our remote farm studios and love making tea and cake for our visitors, please join my mailing list for updates, otherwise visits to my workshop are very welcome with prior arrangement via email or phone.
“Jeremy is a representational sculptor, interested in representing both form and materiality. He enjoys the challenge of showing the quiet joy and soft wooliness of a lone and dancing sock, the fragility of a flower or the silkiness of a cat. An accomplished portraitist, he simplifies to express the very essence of the sitter. His lovely soft fruits have ripened in various sizes. Their very minimal shapes giving them a true softness. His most recent works, perhaps growing out of these are the Vessels. Almost Platonic forms, they eschew a boat’s actual materiality and give only the aerodynamic lines of a vessel designed to cleave the water most undisruptively. They dispense with everything but form. The stone and the form speak together each enhancing the other without interruption."
- Anwyl Cooper-Willis, artist, author, and curator.
News:
See Drift Magazine's recent feature on Jeremy's sculptural work
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Education
MA Fine Art, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, 2007
HND Figurative Sculpture, Stafford College, 1997
Residencies
Plas Brondanw, Wales, Susan Williams-Ellis project, 2023
Bohago private Estate, Cornwall, drawing and stone carving, 2023
Longleat, residency creating ‘Brigid’, 3m tall oak figure, 2004
Solo Exhibitions
Jeremy Stiff at Tŷ Tân Art, Hay on Wye 2021
Jeremy Stiff at Tŷ Tân Art, Hay on Wye 2020
Windows, Plas Brondanw Gardens, Llanfrothen 2014
Group Exhibitions
The London Sculpture Prize, Gunnersbury Park Museum, London, November 2025
What Brings Me Joy, Glenside Hospital Museum, Bristol, November 2025 - April 2026
Ensemble, Menna Angharad & Jeremy Stiff, Spring Cheltenham, Cheltenham, September 2025
Ensemble, Menna Angharad & Jeremy Stiff, Plas Brondanw, Llanfrothen, August - September 2025
Malton & Norton Sculpture Trail, North Yorkshire, June 25 - March 26
Tabernacle Open 2025, MOMA Machynlleth, June - Sept 2025
Bloom & Blodau, Gallery Gwyn, Aberaeron, June 2025
Out of the Blues, Studio Cennen, Ffairfach, May - June 2025
Oriel Brondanw Open, Plas Brondanw, Gwynedd, 2025
ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, The Mall Galeries, London 2024
Wells Art Contemporary, Wells Cathedral, Wells, Somerset 2024
Oriel Brondanw Open, Plas Brondanw, Gwynedd 2024
Gallery Artist, Whitewater Contemporary, Polzeath, Cornwall 2023
Y Lle Celf, National Eisteddfod of Wales, Pwllheli 2023
Oriel Brondanw Open, Plas Brondanw, Gwynedd 2023
Summer Exhibition, Plas Glyn y Weddw, Pwllheli 2019
Helfa Gelf, Theatre Clwyd, Mold 2015
3 Artistes de Viam, Eglise de Viam, Viam19170, France 2014
H-Art, Hereford Museum and Art Gallery, Hereford 2013
Gallery Artist, Lion St. Gallery, Hay-on-Wye 2012-2013
J Stiff & M Angharad, Maison de Granite, Bugeat, France 2012
La Femme, Maison de Granite, Bugeat, France 2011
Summer Exhibition, Tarc Gallery, Bromyard 2010
Domesticated, Old Post Office, Swindon 2010
Salon d’Automne, Vierzon, France 2009
Domesticated, Walcot Chapel, Bath 2009
Ludlow Summer Exhibition, Ludlow College, Ludlow 2009
Pillows, Oriel Caffi Croesor, Gwynedd 2009
Sculpture Cymru at Picton Castle, Picton Castle, Camarthenshire 2009
Welsh Contemporaries, Salem Gallery, Hay-on-Wye 2009
Gallery Artist, Mumbles Road Gallery, Mumbles 2008-9
Ludlow Summer Exhibition, Ludlow College, Ludlow 2008
Sculpture Cymru at the Swan, Hay-on-Wye 2008
Welsh Contemporaries, 35 West Square, London 2007
Summer Exhibition, Kooywood Gallery, Cardiff 2007
Summer Exhibition, Salem Gallery, Hay-on-Wye 2007
Jeremy Stiff & Menna Angharad, The Koywood Gallery, Cardiff 2005
Sculpture Symposiums
Sant Maur, France, carved oak totem, 2005
Meymac, France, carved oak figure, 2003