PRESS RELEASE
DEBORAH BELL | Sculpture & Painting | 2000-2023
Jun 9 – Aug 3, 2024
DEBORAH BELL | Sculpture & Painting | 2000 - 2023
SPIRIT STUDIOS | SUFFOLK
8 June - 3 August 2024 | Benhall, Suffolk
(Saturdays by appointment during August)
REQUEST PRICELIST | +44 (0) 20 7590 9991
The exhibition will be open on Saturdays, by appointment, during the month of August
*Please contact the gallery to schedule your visit. Follow the link here to view the Spirit Studios location.
Everard Read London, in partnership with John Martin Gallery, presents a major exhibition by one of South Africa’s most respected artists. Encompassing sculpture and paintings made over the past 25 years, this is the largest survey of the artist’s work in Europe and includes monumental bronzes, several on exhibition in the UK for the first time.
At the heart of the exhibition are the artist’s cast of her Unearthed sculptures which have not been shown in the UK. Bell was making this series of sculptures as the twentieth century was coming to a close. The artist recalls, “At the end of the millennium I became very conscious of history and dates. I started thinking about the legacy of the last two thousand years, (our Christian heritage), and our education regarding past civilizations and history. At the same time, I found myself drawn to images of our distant past…. It is the silent images of different cultures and times that haunt me - that speak to me of an alternative history and a spiritual language that we have forgotten. I see these figures as resurrections - resurrections of histories and ideas that we have forgotten.”
Placed in the surrounding fields and bordered by ancient oak trees is Bell’s monumental bronze rendering of Artemis and her Dogs (2009 – 2011). “Artemis is the warrior woman, says Bell. “The huntress - bow in hand, forever striding forward. Her arrows arc into the future. She has great purpose, and I can see that as an archetype she has helped me travel far.”
Bell’s work is represented in public and private collections around the world including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Smithsonian Institute and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, the Gloria Steinem Foundation, the Hara Museum, Tokyo and the IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town.
She has collaborated on artistic projects with fellow artists including William Kentridge and the late Robert Hodgins.
