Bethany Stead (b.1995, Wakefield, UK) works through drawing, painting and sculpture to make image, object, and space that challenges and disrupts our fragile social fabric.Their work is concerned with the sense of discomfort and awkwardness of inhabiting biological and artificial bodies in a constantly fluxing world, forming a kind of psychological dissection. Metamorphic and playful figures that transgress category, reside within unsettling or idyllic internal landscapes and architectures, dispersed with subconscious symbol and archetype. Their imagery draws on personal writing, and is shaped by a scattered reading into psychoanalysis, philosophy, theology, anthropology, feminist theory, science-fiction and magical realism.
Solo and duo exhibitions include Girdle, Cub_ism_ Artspace, Shanghai, China (2025);Sackcloth and Ashes, 36 Gallery (duo), Newcastle upon Tyne (2025); Snatch a Thread, Moving Gallery, Sunderland (2024); Dip Your Wick, 'The PUBlic Window' Republic Gallery, Blyth (2022); Saggy, Ex Libris Gallery (duo), Newcastle upon Tyne (2019).
Group exhibitions include Au Fil du Temps, SLQS Gallery, London (2026); [uz], [uz], [uz], The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds University (2026); Old Shadows, Keenley Chapel, Hexam (2025); Home Bodies, Unit 2, St Leonards, East Sussex (2025); Voices Of Pride, Vane, Gateshead (2025); Sustainable Clay, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne (2025); The Omnipotence of Dream, Salford Art Gallery, Greater Manchester (2025); A Pocket Full of Plenty, Curated by Papillon Projects, Hypha Studios, London (2025); ING Discerning Eye, Carol Leonard selection, Mall Galleries, London (2024); Antigone Revisited, Curated by Marcelle Joseph, Hypha Studios HQ, London (2024); Interlaced, Constantine Gallery at Middlesbrough Art Week, Middlesbrough (2024); North East Emerging Artist Award Shortlist, Seaton Delaval Hall, Seaton Sluice (2024); Memories of the Aire and Calder, Left Bank, Leeds (2024); Portals, Gallagher and Turner, Newcastle upon Tyne (2024); Counterweight, Newcastle Arts Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne (2024); Belonging, Pink-Collar Gallery, Sunderland (2024); Pleasure Permission Boundaries, Ex Libris Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne (2024); CRAWL SPACE, The Crypt Gallery, London (2023); Gatherings, SET Woolwich, London (2023); Hypha, Church of St John, Healey, Riding Mill, Northumberland (2023); Now That's What I Call Art 2, Newcastle Contemporary Art, Newcastle upon Tyne (2023).
Highlights and Collections
Stead has been the recipient of several awards, including the Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award Grant (2025); The North East Artists' Fund (2025); The Eaton Fund (2024);The Elephant Fund (2024); The North-East Emerging Artist Award Shortlist - Seaton Delaval Hall (2024); Brass Tacks Artist Bursary - Newcastle Arts Centre (2024); and BALTIC Artist Bursary(2022). She has also been selected for residencies internationally, including Girlpower Residency, Aquitaine, South France (2025); Hogchester Arts Residency, West Dorsett, UK (2025); and Artpark Rhodes, Greece (2019).