Helen Sear

Helen Sear (born 1955) is a Welsh photographer known for being the first female Welsh artist to hold a solo exhibition at the 2015 Venice Biennale and for her exhibit at the 1991 British Council exhibition. An alumnus at University of Reading, she has received several awards for her work.

Early life

Helen Sear was born in Gloucestershire in 1955.[1] Her father was a surgeon who taught her about nature.[2]

Career

Sear studied Fine Art at Reading University and University College London, Slade School. In the late 1980s, she worked primarily through installation, performance, and film. Her photographic works were included in the 1991 British Council exhibition "De-Composition: Constructed Photography in Britain",[3] which toured Latin America and Eastern Europe.

The artist received an Abbey Award in 1993 at the British School at Rome.[4] She won joint first prize for visual art at the National Eisteddfod in Wales in 2011,[5] and was the recipient of an Arts Council of Wales Creative Wales Award to develop new work.[6] Ffotogallery, Wales' national agency for photography published her first major monograph in 2012, Inside the View,[7] which was nominated for best international photography book at Photo Espana.[8] In 2013 she was awarded the Wakelin Award[9] for her work Chameleon, which will remain part of the contemporary art collection at Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and museum.

She is represented by Klompching Gallery in New York and is currently Reader in Photography and Fine Art at University of South Wales, Newport.[10]

Her work focuses on ideas of vision, touch, and the re-presentation of the nature of experience, with particular reference to bodies and the immediate environment in rural Wales and France.

In 2015, Sear was selected to make a solo presentation for Wales at the 56th Venice Biennale 2015.[11]

She has been described as a formalist feminist, and counts Max Ernst as an inspiration, as well as Britishness, noting the paganism of Samuel Palmer, William Blake, and Paul Nash, but also openly quoting the Pre-Raphaelites.[12]

Notable exhibitions

Solo exhibitions
  • Gone to Earth, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, 1994
  • Twice... Once, Anderson O’Day London, 1998
  • Zelda Cheatle Gallery, 2000

'Inside The View', Klompching Gallery, New York USA, 2009 [13]

  • Beyond The View', Klompching Gallery, New York USA, 2010[14]
  • Display, G39 Cardiff, 2009[15]
  • Beyond The View, Bildkultur, Stuttgart, 2012[16]

'Sightlines and Pastoral Monuments', Klompching Gallery, New York USA 2012 [17]

  • Lure, Oriel Davies national touring exhibition, 2013[5]
  • Pastoral Monuments, Les Rencontres Internationales, Gaspésie Canada, 2014[18]

'Helen Sear', Klompchng Gallery, New York USA 2015 [19] 'Helen Sear: New Work', Klompching Gallery, New York USA 2017 [20]

Group exhibitions
  • British Council touring Exhibition De-Composition, constructed photography in Britain. 1991–1998[3]
  • Moments of Capture, Museum of Modern Art, Skopje, Macedonia
  • A Quality of Light, Office of Art project, Tate Gallery, St. Ives, 1997
  • Here to Stay, Arts Council of England purchases from the 1990s Lausanne, Switzerland, 1998
  • Je t’envisage, la disparition du portrait: Musée de L’Elysée,
  • About Face, Hayward Gallery, London, 2004
  • La Mirada Reflexiva, Espai D’Art Contemporani de Castellon, Spain, (with Robert Longo and Perejaume ), 2005
  • Nothing Is In The Place, Kraków (Photo month), 2010[21]
  • We Have The Mirrors, We Have The Plans: Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales, 2010[22]
  • Paris Photo, Aperture Foundation New York, 2011
  • Portmanteau, Halle 14 Leipzig, 2011[23]
  • Hijacked 111, Derby Quad, 2012[24]
  • New Perspectives: Landscape Art in Wales since the 1970s, National Museum Wales, 2012
  • Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, London, 2014[25]

Publications
  • Natural’s Not in It John Slyce Portfolio no. 35 (2002)
  • Face. The New Photographic Portrait. Thames and Hudson (2006) [26]
  • Inside the View (2012)[7]
  • Brisées (2013) [27]

References
  1. "Helen Sear". Hundred Heroines. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
  2. Wright, Karen (14 March 2015). "Helen Sear, artist: 'I am trying to slow down the instantaneousness of the camera'". The Independent. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  3. British Council. "Exhibitions - Current - DECOMPOSITION - British Council − Visual Arts". britishcouncil.org.
  4. "Helen Sear: Artist's Talk « The British School at Rome". bsr.ac.uk.
  5. "Lure". orieldavies.org.
  6. "Arts Council of Wales | Helen Sear". Archived from the original on 16 February 2015. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  7. "Helen Sear - Inside the View - Ffotogallery". ffotogallery.org.
  8. Contemporary Art Society. "Helen Sear - Contemporary Art Society". contemporaryartsociety.org.
  9. "Helen Sear wins The Wakelin Award 2013". WIRAD. Archived from the original on 16 February 2015.
  10. "Helen Sear". Archived from the original on 16 February 2015. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  11. "Arts Council of Wales | the 2015 Cymru yn Fenis / Wales in Venice Exhibition". Archived from the original on 16 February 2015. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  12. "Helen Sear, artist: 'I am trying to slow down the instantaneousness of". The Independent. 12 March 2015. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  13. "KLOMPCHING GALLERY — Past Exhibitions 2009". KLOMPCHING GALLERY.
  14. "KLOMPCHING GALLERY — Past Exhibitions 2010". KLOMPCHING GALLERY.
  15. g39.org. "g - 39". g39.org.
  16. "bildkultur Stuttgart, HELEN SEAR – BEYOND THE VIEW". bildkultur.de.
  17. "KLOMPCHING GALLERY — Past Exhibitions 2012". KLOMPCHING GALLERY.
  18. "Helen Sear at Maria". photogaspesie.ca. Archived from the original on 16 February 2015.
  19. "KLOMPCHING GALLERY — Past Exhibitions 2015". KLOMPCHING GALLERY.
  20. "KLOMPCHING GALLERY — Upcoming Exhibitions". KLOMPCHING GALLERY.
  21. "Miesiąc Fotografii w Krakowie 2012 -- Photomonth in Krakow 2012". photomonth.com.
  22. "We Have The Mirrors, We Have The Plans". mostyn.org. Archived from the original on 16 February 2015.
  23. g39.org. "g - 39". g39.org.
  24. "Hijacked III: Contemporary Photography from Australia and the UK". QUAD. Archived from the original on 16 February 2015.
  25. "Summer Exhibition 2014 - Exhibition - Royal Academy of Arts". royalacademy.org.uk.
  26. "Thames & Hudson Publishers - Essential illustrated art books - Face - The New Photographic Portrait". thamesandhudson.com.
  27. "Brisées - 2013". Helen SEAR. Archived from the original on 16 February 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.