Bethan Hughes audiovisual installations, sculptures and texts interweave archival research and speculative narratives to explore the unnatural ecologies generated through industry, commerce and technology. Her work has been exhibited at venues including LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón (SP), gnration, Braga (PT), Kunstpavillion, Innsbruck (AT), nGbK, Berlin (DE), Ars Electronica, Linz (AT), Haubrok Foundation, Berlin (DE), and HAUNT/frontviews, Berlin (DE). In 2023, she was a European Media Art Platform fellow and in 2024, she completed an Art & Ecology residency at the Museums Quartier in Vienna. Bethan studied Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art and Media Art at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. She completed a PhD at the University of Leeds in 2020, with a dissertation titled Against Immateriality: 3D CGI and Contemporary Art. She is currently working on her first monograph, forthcoming early 2025 with K. Verlag, Berlin. Titled Elastic Continuum, it traces the material and symbolic transformations of a rubber-containing plant better known the Kazakh dandelion.
Portrait by Lukas Städler, Templehofer Feld, April 2021.
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Portrait by Lukas Städler, Templehofer Feld, April 2021.
Selected Exhibitions / Projects:
2024
Solo, Hevea Act 6: An Elastic Continuum, Kunstpavillion Innsbruck (AT)
Group, Index 2024, gneration, Braga (PT)
Group, Theme Exhibition, Ars Electronica, Linz (AT)
Duo (with Dominique Hurth), To want the world in a glass hat. Neun Kelche, Berlin (DE)
2023
Research presentation, Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, Almaty (KZ)
Residency, European Media Art Platform, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial (ES)
Solo, Hevea Act 6, European Media Art Platform, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial (ES)
Group, Kunzten, Kunstraum Flutgraben, Berlin (DE)
Group, Natur Morte, Galerie Burster, Berlin (DE)
2022
Group, The Harvest, Stiftung Künstlerdorf Schöppingen
Group, A Fluid Defence, Künstlerhaus Sootbörn, Hamburg (DE)
Residency fellowship, Stiftung Künstlerdorf Schöppingen (DE)
Solo, Hevea Act 4: Unnatural Ecologies, feldfünf, Berlin (DE)
2021
[ONGOING] Film project, High Deck, collaboration with Alina Schmuch and Caroline Pitzen, Berlin (DE)
Solo, Hevea Act 2: Devil's Milk, Centrum, Berlin (DE)
Solo, Hevea, HAUNT/frontviews, Berlin (DE)
Group, Mutual Matters: Goldrausch 2021, Haubrok Foundation, Berlin (DE)
Group, Staycation, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, Sandwich Gallery, CTG Collective, Bucharest (RO)
2020
Duo w/ Laura Schawelka, TAPPING DRESSING, Diskurs Berlin (DE)
Group, If Everything is Connected, Everything is Vulnerable, Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig (DE)
Online, Re-shift, Re-calibrate, Pavilion / Hyde Park Picture, Leeds (UK)
2019
Group, Not Photography, Bankley Gallery, Manchester (UK)
Screening Programme, An Eye To Notice Them (w/ Rhian Cooke, Jasleen Kaur, Rehana Zaman, Charlotte Prodger), Hyde Park Picture House for Yorkshire Sculpture International, Leeds (UK)
Group, Studio 100, Bauhaus 100, Gaswerk, Weimar (DE)
Engagement Artist, Sensory Sculpture, YSP / Yorkshire Sculpture International / John Jamieson School, Leeds / Wakefield (UK)
2018
Group, EBC_019, East Bristol Contemporary, Bristol (UK)
Group, A Connection is Made, Gallery 46, Whitechapel, London (UK)
Artists’ book presentation, Oberfläche, AMBruno selection 2018, The Tetley, Leeds (UK)
Solo, Do Nothing, Open Field residency presentation, CASS School of Art, Architecture & Design, London Met (UK)
2017
Group, Post-digital printmaking, Neon Gallery/ Concrete Gallery, Wroclaw (PL)
Performance (with MXZEHN/Sauter), Spektrum: art science tech., Scope Sessions, Berlin (DE)
Group, Open Call, Bankley Gallery, Manchester (UK)
Group, In The Open, Sheffield Institute for the Arts, Sheffield (UK)
Solo, Bodies of Water, serf studios and project space, Leeds (UK)
Group, Cut Cloth, The Portico Library & Gallery, Manchester (UK)
Solo, Softbodies, Project Space, Leeds (UK)
2016
Duo (with Duygu Atceken), Berlin Camouflage, Plattenvereinigung, Tempelhofer Feld, Berlin (DE)
Publications / Published Writing:
2022
Hevea Act 4: Unnatural Ecologies, with Sajan Mani, Antony George Koothanady and Delfina Cabrera, Berlin (DE)
2021
Corpsing: CGI as Grotesque Realism in the Work of Ed Atkins, article in Un/Masking: Reflections on a Transformative Process, Neofelis Verlag, Berlin (DE)
Hevea Act 3: Before the Blight Hit, Berlin (DE)
Hevea Act 2: Devil’s Milk, Berlin (DE)
2020
Hevea Act 1: Hevea & Other Nutzpflanzen, BS Projects, Braunschweig (DE)
2018
Oberfläche, AMBruno Artists’ Book Series London (UK)
2017
Pure Beauty in Non-Spaces, collaboration with Louis de Belle, San Rocco Magazine, Milan (IT)
2016
Fundamental Acts - Ceremony, collaboration with Louis de Belle, a+m bookstore, Milan (IT)
Facets of Kotti, Forms of Formalism N.3, LUCIA Verlag, Weimar / Berlin (DE)
Curatorial:
Poor Image Projects (PIP), a nomadic event platform which supports and showcases audio-visual and moving image art, established in 2018 in collaboration with artist Anya Stewart-Maggs. PIP has worked with artists from across the UK and has held events at The Tetley, East Street Arts temporary spaces, Henry Moore Institute, Assembly House, Pavilion, MAP Charity at Hope House, University of Leeds, Blank Gallery and more. It has received funding from Arts Council England, Leeds City Council and the University of Leeds. In 2019, PIP took part in Index Festival.
Scholarships / Awards / Funding:
2023
Scholarship: Kulturaustausch Global, Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Berlin (DE)
2022
Scholarship: Neustart Kultur, Stiftung Kunstfonds (DE)
Project funding: Modul C, NEUSTART für Bildende Künstlerinnen und Künstler (DE)
2021
Scholarship: Bildende Kunst Recherchestipendium, Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Berlin (DE)
Project funding: High Deck, DRAUSSENSTADT-Call for Action, Stiftung für Kulturelle Weiterbildung und Kulturberatung, Berlin (DE)
Project funding: Hevea Act 2, Kultur Neukölln, Bizirksamt Neukölln, Berlin (DE)
Artists programme: Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt, Berlin, European Social Funds and the Berlin Senate Department for Health, Care and Equality (DE)
2019/20
Scholarship: BS Projects, Niedersächsischen Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur(DE)
03-08/19
Project funding: Arts Council England funding for Poor Image Projects, part of group funding bid for Index Festival / Yorkshire Sculpture International
04/18
Project funding: Forum award, AHRC, for the event ‘Quilting Points Presents Sara Ahmed’, University of Leeds
01/18
Award: 3rd Axis Web Award, awarded to support Poor Image Projects
01/18
Scholarship: WRoCAH Large Award to support one month research residency at CASS, WRoCAH: White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (AHRC)
11/17-10/18
Project funding: AHC Faculty Interdisciplinary Research Support Award, Arts and Humanities Graduate School, University of Leeds to support seminar group ‘Quilting Points’ on the work of Sara Ahmed
11/17
Project funding: WRoCAH Small Award for Post-digital printmaking conference, Wroclaw, WRoCAH: White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (AHRC)
10/16-09/19
Scholarship: AHRC PhD Research Studentship WRoCAH: White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (AHRC)
11/14
Funding: Women’s Fund to support MA production, The Office of Equal Opportunities, Bauhaus University Weimar
08/12-07/14
Scholarship: 2 Year DAAD Postgraduate Study Scholarship to support MA, The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Bonn
06/11
Award: GSA Fine Art Essay Prize, Department for Historical and Critical Studies, Glasgow School of Art
Education:
2016-20
Postgraduate Research / PhD, School of Fine Art, History of Art & Cultural Studies, University of Leeds (UK)
Supervised by Prof. Gail Day, Dr. Diane Morgan, Prof. Christopher Taylor
Against Immateriality: 3D CGI & Contemporary Art
2012-14
MA Media Art and Design, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (DE)
Supervised by Prof. Christine Hill Weimar (DE), 1.1 (1st Class)
New Prunk: Taste, Display and the Simulated Sensuous Surface
2009
Erasmus Exchange, Hungarian Academy of Fine Art, Budapest (HU)
Fine Art Printmaking
2008-11
BA (Hons) Fine Art, 1st Class, The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland (UK)
Selected Professional:
2021-ongoing
Freelance project coordination / translation, SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA, bi’bak e.V., Berlin (DE)
10/16-07/19
Visiting Tutor (Studio Practice), Undergraduate Fine Art programme; tutorials, workshops, crits, School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, Uni. of Leeds (UK)
07-08/18
Exhibitions and Programming Fellowship at Printed Matter, Inc. Archiving, digitising and exhibition project, NYC (US)
01-09/16
Online-shop manager at Bauhaus Atelier, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (DE)
04/15-04/16
Studio Assistant, Archiving, logistics, production for artist Dominique Hurth, Kunstfabrik am Flutgraben, Am Flutgraben 3, 12435, Berlin (DE)
Selected Conference Papers & Talks:
2019
Conference: Un/masking. On a mimetic form, Corpsing: CGI as Grotesque Realism in the work of Ed Atkins, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte Munich, LMU Munich (DE)
Invited Lecture: Research Open Day, Art, research and the library as…, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (UK)
2018
Open Field Residency: Artists’ Talk, The Sir John Cass School of Art, Design and Architecture, London (UK)
2017
Conference: Post-digital printmaking and the redefinition of print, Print_Screen: Surface, Depth and the 3D Rendered Image, The Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław (PL)
2024
Solo, Hevea Act 6: An Elastic Continuum, Kunstpavillion Innsbruck (AT)
Group, Index 2024, gneration, Braga (PT)
Group, Theme Exhibition, Ars Electronica, Linz (AT)
Duo (with Dominique Hurth), To want the world in a glass hat. Neun Kelche, Berlin (DE)
2023
Research presentation, Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, Almaty (KZ)
Residency, European Media Art Platform, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial (ES)
Solo, Hevea Act 6, European Media Art Platform, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial (ES)
Group, Kunzten, Kunstraum Flutgraben, Berlin (DE)
Group, Natur Morte, Galerie Burster, Berlin (DE)
2022
Group, The Harvest, Stiftung Künstlerdorf Schöppingen
Group, A Fluid Defence, Künstlerhaus Sootbörn, Hamburg (DE)
Residency fellowship, Stiftung Künstlerdorf Schöppingen (DE)
Solo, Hevea Act 4: Unnatural Ecologies, feldfünf, Berlin (DE)
2021
[ONGOING] Film project, High Deck, collaboration with Alina Schmuch and Caroline Pitzen, Berlin (DE)
Solo, Hevea Act 2: Devil's Milk, Centrum, Berlin (DE)
Solo, Hevea, HAUNT/frontviews, Berlin (DE)
Group, Mutual Matters: Goldrausch 2021, Haubrok Foundation, Berlin (DE)
Group, Staycation, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, Sandwich Gallery, CTG Collective, Bucharest (RO)
2020
Duo w/ Laura Schawelka, TAPPING DRESSING, Diskurs Berlin (DE)
Group, If Everything is Connected, Everything is Vulnerable, Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig (DE)
Online, Re-shift, Re-calibrate, Pavilion / Hyde Park Picture, Leeds (UK)
2019
Group, Not Photography, Bankley Gallery, Manchester (UK)
Screening Programme, An Eye To Notice Them (w/ Rhian Cooke, Jasleen Kaur, Rehana Zaman, Charlotte Prodger), Hyde Park Picture House for Yorkshire Sculpture International, Leeds (UK)
Group, Studio 100, Bauhaus 100, Gaswerk, Weimar (DE)
Engagement Artist, Sensory Sculpture, YSP / Yorkshire Sculpture International / John Jamieson School, Leeds / Wakefield (UK)
2018
Group, EBC_019, East Bristol Contemporary, Bristol (UK)
Group, A Connection is Made, Gallery 46, Whitechapel, London (UK)
Artists’ book presentation, Oberfläche, AMBruno selection 2018, The Tetley, Leeds (UK)
Solo, Do Nothing, Open Field residency presentation, CASS School of Art, Architecture & Design, London Met (UK)
2017
Group, Post-digital printmaking, Neon Gallery/ Concrete Gallery, Wroclaw (PL)
Performance (with MXZEHN/Sauter), Spektrum: art science tech., Scope Sessions, Berlin (DE)
Group, Open Call, Bankley Gallery, Manchester (UK)
Group, In The Open, Sheffield Institute for the Arts, Sheffield (UK)
Solo, Bodies of Water, serf studios and project space, Leeds (UK)
Group, Cut Cloth, The Portico Library & Gallery, Manchester (UK)
Solo, Softbodies, Project Space, Leeds (UK)
2016
Duo (with Duygu Atceken), Berlin Camouflage, Plattenvereinigung, Tempelhofer Feld, Berlin (DE)
Publications / Published Writing:
2022
Hevea Act 4: Unnatural Ecologies, with Sajan Mani, Antony George Koothanady and Delfina Cabrera, Berlin (DE)
2021
Corpsing: CGI as Grotesque Realism in the Work of Ed Atkins, article in Un/Masking: Reflections on a Transformative Process, Neofelis Verlag, Berlin (DE)
Hevea Act 3: Before the Blight Hit, Berlin (DE)
Hevea Act 2: Devil’s Milk, Berlin (DE)
2020
Hevea Act 1: Hevea & Other Nutzpflanzen, BS Projects, Braunschweig (DE)
2018
Oberfläche, AMBruno Artists’ Book Series London (UK)
2017
Pure Beauty in Non-Spaces, collaboration with Louis de Belle, San Rocco Magazine, Milan (IT)
2016
Fundamental Acts - Ceremony, collaboration with Louis de Belle, a+m bookstore, Milan (IT)
Facets of Kotti, Forms of Formalism N.3, LUCIA Verlag, Weimar / Berlin (DE)
Curatorial:
Poor Image Projects (PIP), a nomadic event platform which supports and showcases audio-visual and moving image art, established in 2018 in collaboration with artist Anya Stewart-Maggs. PIP has worked with artists from across the UK and has held events at The Tetley, East Street Arts temporary spaces, Henry Moore Institute, Assembly House, Pavilion, MAP Charity at Hope House, University of Leeds, Blank Gallery and more. It has received funding from Arts Council England, Leeds City Council and the University of Leeds. In 2019, PIP took part in Index Festival.
Scholarships / Awards / Funding:
2023
Scholarship: Kulturaustausch Global, Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Berlin (DE)
2022
Scholarship: Neustart Kultur, Stiftung Kunstfonds (DE)
Project funding: Modul C, NEUSTART für Bildende Künstlerinnen und Künstler (DE)
2021
Scholarship: Bildende Kunst Recherchestipendium, Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Berlin (DE)
Project funding: High Deck, DRAUSSENSTADT-Call for Action, Stiftung für Kulturelle Weiterbildung und Kulturberatung, Berlin (DE)
Project funding: Hevea Act 2, Kultur Neukölln, Bizirksamt Neukölln, Berlin (DE)
Artists programme: Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt, Berlin, European Social Funds and the Berlin Senate Department for Health, Care and Equality (DE)
2019/20
Scholarship: BS Projects, Niedersächsischen Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur(DE)
03-08/19
Project funding: Arts Council England funding for Poor Image Projects, part of group funding bid for Index Festival / Yorkshire Sculpture International
04/18
Project funding: Forum award, AHRC, for the event ‘Quilting Points Presents Sara Ahmed’, University of Leeds
01/18
Award: 3rd Axis Web Award, awarded to support Poor Image Projects
01/18
Scholarship: WRoCAH Large Award to support one month research residency at CASS, WRoCAH: White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (AHRC)
11/17-10/18
Project funding: AHC Faculty Interdisciplinary Research Support Award, Arts and Humanities Graduate School, University of Leeds to support seminar group ‘Quilting Points’ on the work of Sara Ahmed
11/17
Project funding: WRoCAH Small Award for Post-digital printmaking conference, Wroclaw, WRoCAH: White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (AHRC)
10/16-09/19
Scholarship: AHRC PhD Research Studentship WRoCAH: White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (AHRC)
11/14
Funding: Women’s Fund to support MA production, The Office of Equal Opportunities, Bauhaus University Weimar
08/12-07/14
Scholarship: 2 Year DAAD Postgraduate Study Scholarship to support MA, The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Bonn
06/11
Award: GSA Fine Art Essay Prize, Department for Historical and Critical Studies, Glasgow School of Art
Education:
2016-20
Postgraduate Research / PhD, School of Fine Art, History of Art & Cultural Studies, University of Leeds (UK)
Supervised by Prof. Gail Day, Dr. Diane Morgan, Prof. Christopher Taylor
Against Immateriality: 3D CGI & Contemporary Art
2012-14
MA Media Art and Design, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (DE)
Supervised by Prof. Christine Hill Weimar (DE), 1.1 (1st Class)
New Prunk: Taste, Display and the Simulated Sensuous Surface
2009
Erasmus Exchange, Hungarian Academy of Fine Art, Budapest (HU)
Fine Art Printmaking
2008-11
BA (Hons) Fine Art, 1st Class, The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland (UK)
Selected Professional:
2021-ongoing
Freelance project coordination / translation, SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA, bi’bak e.V., Berlin (DE)
10/16-07/19
Visiting Tutor (Studio Practice), Undergraduate Fine Art programme; tutorials, workshops, crits, School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, Uni. of Leeds (UK)
07-08/18
Exhibitions and Programming Fellowship at Printed Matter, Inc. Archiving, digitising and exhibition project, NYC (US)
01-09/16
Online-shop manager at Bauhaus Atelier, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (DE)
04/15-04/16
Studio Assistant, Archiving, logistics, production for artist Dominique Hurth, Kunstfabrik am Flutgraben, Am Flutgraben 3, 12435, Berlin (DE)
Selected Conference Papers & Talks:
2019
Conference: Un/masking. On a mimetic form, Corpsing: CGI as Grotesque Realism in the work of Ed Atkins, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte Munich, LMU Munich (DE)
Invited Lecture: Research Open Day, Art, research and the library as…, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (UK)
2018
Open Field Residency: Artists’ Talk, The Sir John Cass School of Art, Design and Architecture, London (UK)
2017
Conference: Post-digital printmaking and the redefinition of print, Print_Screen: Surface, Depth and the 3D Rendered Image, The Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław (PL)