American journalist and social activist, Gloria Steinem, celebrated her 90^th birthday with the launch of the Gloria Steinem Foundation in New York City. Steinem describes the Foundation as “an incubator for activism.”

Deborah Bell’s Unearthed III bronze figure sits in the heart of the Foundation’s newly renovated gardens. Following Steinem’s first encounter with the sculpture a decade ago in South Africa, friends and colleagues worked behind the scenes to find and bring the sculpture to NYC to mark this milestone.

NBC New York profiled the launch of the Foundation and the unveiling of the sculpture in a news reel available to view here.

Return of the Gods: The Ancient Ones (2015)

‘I don’t know if I summoned these figures, or they summoned me to make them. They just developed this enormous presence and I started thinking about the notion of the gods in Western society and how we view them as either myth or fantasy or new age. For me, these five figures are absolutely benevolent. I view them as forefathers. I believe that we are all gods, we have just forgotten, and we are stuck down here repeating old patterns and habitual addictions. The Ancient Ones are memories of what we were.’

‘I am often asked about the small figures emerging from the crown of their heads. I have begun to realise that for me they represent the revealing of the spiritual self. The fact that these sculptures have fully realised figures with whole bodies shows that they are spiritually evolved beings. The men have female figures on their heads and the women have male figures on their heads. So, they also represent a marriage of the masculine and feminine and an owning of the full self, the complete self.’

‘It took me years to realise that I was interested in art that can change the world. That intent and creation can alter one’s reality. And I believe that is what art was used for in many cultures. We just don’t see it that way in contemporary Western culture. For me, every single artwork is more of a spiritual discipline about inner transformation. My work is about spiritual transformation. I like to believe that other people will feel that as well. I cannot force it, but if it happens for me then I like to believe that it can happen for others too.’

Interview with Tim Leibbrandt, Artthrob, 2016

Return of the Gods: The Ancient Ones (2015) is part of Masterpiece Online 2021

Deborah Bell | Sentinels (2020)

3 September - 3 October

Read the catalogue below

Deborah Bell, on the occassion of Deborah Bell | Sentinels (2020) at Everard Read London, is interviewed by Bob Chaundy on an episode of the podcast Considering Art.

Click here to read the hear the full interview

Deborah Bell, on the occasion of Deborah Bell | Sentinels (2020) at Everard Read London, is the subject of an interview feature with Daniel Gauss on Wall Street International.

Click here to read the full interview.

Deborah Bell | Sentinels (2020) at Everard Read London is previewed by Chris Jenkins on Arts & Collections. 

Click here to read the full article

Everard Read present at FNB Art Joburg

13 September - 15 September 2019

Everard Read presents over 20 artist from South Africa and Europe. Artist include Brett Murray, Deborah Bell, Beth Diane Armstrong, Blessing Ngobeni, Caryn Scrimgoeour, Lionel Smit, Angus Taylor, Nigel Mullins, Lucinda Mudge, Turiya Magadlela, Norman Catherine, Guy Ferrer, Phillemon Hlungwani, Lady Skollie, Andrzej Urbanski, Daniel Naudé and Olivié Keck.

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Everard Read Cape Town exhibits at Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2019, exhibiting works by artists including Brett Murray, Deborah Bell, Blessing Ngobeni, Nigel Mullins, Andrzej Urbanski, Beezy Bailey and Beth Diane Armstrong.

Art Angels Africa brought their annual charity auction to London for the first time this month, auctioning works by top South African artists. Several Everard Read artists donated works for the auction, including Beezy Bailey, Deborah Bell, Phillemon Hlungwani, Angus Taylor, Rina Stutzer, Lionel Smit, Colbert Mashile, Dylan Lewis and Nic Bladen, along with Sam Nhlengethwa and Marco Cianfanelli. 

My aim is to visually grasp the studio and its contents which are predominantly static, over time, so that the slow infusion of the presence of the working artist, through light and movement, impregnates the photographic image with a tangible presence and energy which cannot be seen, but definitely felt. 

   - Laura Ellenberger

Deborah Belll , leading South African artist represented by Everard Read discusses her new body of work for her forthcoming exhibition - Return of the Gods - at Everard Read Gallery London. Here we find Bell, a long time collaborator with South African legends Robert Hodgins and William Kentridge, at her most introspective best, contemplating what it is to practice art in a far flung corner of South Africa as an outsider from the global often circuitous and incestuous art dialogue which allows her to bring her own unique vision to the conversation.

A look at Deborah Bell's Return of the Gods exhibition at Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town.

To view the film click here