Versatile artist, born in north Yorkshire, who studied at St Martin’s School of Art, 1986–9. Hopton took part in numerous group exhibitions in Britain and abroad. The largest survey of Hopton’s work was Laughed – I Could Have Cried, at firstsite, Colchester, 2003, an occasion shared with Jonathan Callan. Hopton created sculptures, paintings, drawings and photographs in which humour and sadness collided. She continually reworked her own and other artists’ works. Various motifs recurred: magic wands, artists’ palettes, Pierrots and Harlequins, as well as an obsession with textured materials, such as glitter, pom-poms and crazy paving. Hopton collaborated with Simon Periton as Hope (see separate entries) and with Josephine Soughan. Lived in London.