Bethany Stead
Ode to St. Catherine, glazed ceramic, 28 x 18 x 37
Open eyed dreams, 2024, glazed ceramic, graphite, cloth, 20 x 19 x 38 cm
​Bethany Stead (b.1995, Wakefield) is an artist based in Newcastle upon Tyne. She was recently awarded an The Elephant Trust Grant (2024) and the Eaton Fund (2024).
Working across drawing, painting, sculpture and textiles, Bethany draws upon allegory, iconography, feminist theory, psychology and sci-fi through visual storytelling and object making, culminating in symbolic spaces that disrupt our fragile socio-political fabric. She attempts to explore the discomfort and awkwardness of inhabiting bodies, both biological and artificial, the history of bodily health, the human connection to clothing and costume, notions of worship and religion, and our relationship with the non-human sphere through the lens of class.
Metamorphic and animalistic drawings and sculptures stand as beings, residing within unsettling or idyllic spaces. Symbolism and archetype are woven into imagery, influenced by intergenerational storytelling and personal writing as therapy. Embodying a reconnection to forgotten worlds and ideas, she rejects escapism, to embrace complicated experiences of class, gender, sexuality, health, ecology, technology and grief.
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Selected Solo Exhibitions
Snatch a Thread, Moving Gallery, Sunderland, UK (2024)
Dip Your Wick, 'The PUBlic Window', Republic Gallery, Blyth, UK (2022)
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Selected Group Exhibitions
Sustainable Clay, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne,UK (2025)
A Pocket Full of Plenty, Hypha Studios - Netil House, London, UK (2025)
​​The Omnipotence of Dream, Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Greater Manchester, UK (2025)
ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London, UK (2024)
​Antigone Revisited, Hypha Studios HQ, London, UK (2024)
Interlaced, Constantine Gallery - Middlesbrough Art Week, Middlesbrough, UK (2024)
Portals, Gallagher and Turner, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (2024)
​Counterweight, Newcastle Arts Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (2024)
North East Emerging Artist Award Shortlist, Seaton Delaval Hall, Seaton Sluice, UK (2024)
​CRAWL SPACE, The Crypt Gallery, St Pancras, London, UK (2023)
Gatherings, SET Woolwich, London, UK (2023)
Hypha, Church of St John, Healey, Riding Mill, Northumberland, UK (2023)
​Collected, 36 Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (2022)
Loose Time, Vane Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (2021)
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Salutations, 2024, installation of six works on sewn paper panels, acrylic, tempera, wax pencil, oil pastel, thread, wood frame, 223.5 x 118 x 72 cm