Bethan Huws (born 1961) is a Welsh multi-media artist whose work explores place, identity, and translation, often using architecture and text. [1] [2] Her work has been described as "delicate, unobtrusive interventions into architectural spaces". [2]
Huws was born in Bangor, Wales in 1961. [3] English is her second language, with Welsh being her vernacular. [4] She studied at Middlesex Polytechnic between 1981 and 1985 [5] and at the Royal College of Art, London, between 1986 and 1988. [5] At her graduate show, Huw's presented an empty studio 'having chiselled clean, inch by inch, the entire wooden-floor'. [6]
Huws' first major solo exhibition was Art Cologne 1989 at Koelnmesse GmbH in Cologne. [7] Other notable exhibitions include the Anthony Reynolds Gallery (1988), Riverside Studios (1989), Kunsthalle Bern (1990), Luis Campana Gallery (1991), the Venice Biennale (2003) and the Ingleby Gallery (2011). [2] [8] [9]
In 1991, Huws moved to Paris, France. [6]
In 1993, Huws made a film called Singing for the Sea in which eight Bulgarian women sing and dance on a beach on the North Sea coast in Northumberland, wearing traditional Bulgarian dress. The performance took place over three evenings in front of a live audience, and the resulting 12-minute film was exhibited in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp. [9]
Huws was awarded the Adolf-Luther-Trust Art Award in 1998. [10]
Between 1999 and 2000, Huws undertook The Henry Moore Sculpture Fellowship at the British School at Rome. [10]
In 2004, she won the Ludwig Gies-Award for Small-sized Sculpture by LETTER Trust, Cologne, Germany. [10]
She won the B.A.C.A. Europe 2006 award given by the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht. [10]
Huws was the DAAD Artist-in-Residence between 2007 and 2008 in Berlin, Germany. [10]
Huws has lived in Berlin since 2010. [4]
Huws' work is centred around the re-imagining of spaces through intervention. [11] Through the use of multi-media materials, her work interrupts and redirects understanding. [11] Self-investigation is also required by the viewer to create a new interpretation of space. [3] There is a universal commentary within her work, conveying messages that can be understood without language. [6] Heavily basing her practice on Duchamp, Huws' work is often satirical, reinventing spaces in a parodical way. [3] This is achieved through her use of lettering, exemplified in works such as 'Piss off I'm a Fountain'. [1] Similarly, Huws plays with readymade elements to construct artistic perspectives. [12] She is also influenced by René Magritte's intellectual work. [3] Identity is another theme central to Huws' work, often reflecting on her life as a Welsh artist. [3] Her landscapes are usually created from memory, typically depicting farming scenes in North Wales. [6] From a young age Huws has used reeds to make miniature boats. [1] These boats carry subjective value to Huws due to their link to Wales and are incorporated creatively into her work. [12]
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