Since my Granny established the Garden Chapel of St Werburgh in the back-garden of her semi-detached home, I have been interested in belief, meaning-making, and value systems. The demarcation of sacred space within the four flat-packed walls of a shed bought from B&Q has had a profound influence on my practice as an example of how the mundane can be transformed, venerated, and made meaningful.
As an artist, writer, and researcher, I use drawing, gilding, painting, performance, and installation to delve into contemporary Western culture and explore how we make meaning and find things meaningful today. My work orbits the God-shaped hole in contemporary secular Western culture, with my latest artworks focusing on the role and significance of the smartphone and the online worlds handheld devices connect us to. To this end, the compositions of my pictorial and sculptural works combine motifs, forms, and gestures from Christian artworks and architecture with elements from smartphones and social media content. The vaulted ceiling of York Minster, a halo selfie filter, a Byzantine Mother of God Joy to All Who Grieve icon, and the bezel of an iPhone 11 pro max are ripped, cut, and pasted together to create new compositions.
Entangling digital and divine subjects draws unexpected connections between the two in order to revise assessment of the former’s cultural significance. In recent works I have gilded social media and spiritual imagery onto polythene and paper to create artworks that bring the sacred into conversation with the secular
As an artist, writer, and researcher, I use drawing, gilding, painting, performance, and installation to delve into contemporary Western culture and explore how we make meaning and find things meaningful today. My work orbits the God-shaped hole in contemporary secular Western culture, with my latest artworks focusing on the role and significance of the smartphone and the online worlds handheld devices connect us to. To this end, the compositions of my pictorial and sculptural works combine motifs, forms, and gestures from Christian artworks and architecture with elements from smartphones and social media content. The vaulted ceiling of York Minster, a halo selfie filter, a Byzantine Mother of God Joy to All Who Grieve icon, and the bezel of an iPhone 11 pro max are ripped, cut, and pasted together to create new compositions.
Entangling digital and divine subjects draws unexpected connections between the two in order to revise assessment of the former’s cultural significance. In recent works I have gilded social media and spiritual imagery onto polythene and paper to create artworks that bring the sacred into conversation with the secular
EDUCATION
PhD Fine Art (Practice-led), Leeds Beckett University, 2024
Thinking-through traces: a practice-led diffractive reading of the smartphone through the Eastern Orthodox icon
Examined by: Professor Kiff Bamford, Professor Graham Ellard & Professor Stephen Johnstone
MA Contemporary Art Theory (Distinction), Goldsmiths, 2015
BA(Hons) Fine Art (First Class Honours), Northumbria University, 2013
Thinking-through traces: a practice-led diffractive reading of the smartphone through the Eastern Orthodox icon
Examined by: Professor Kiff Bamford, Professor Graham Ellard & Professor Stephen Johnstone
MA Contemporary Art Theory (Distinction), Goldsmiths, 2015
BA(Hons) Fine Art (First Class Honours), Northumbria University, 2013
RESIDENCIES & OTHER PROJECTS
2025
Remaking Memories Together, delivered in partnership with County Durham Libraries and the Bowes Museum, kindly supported by Arts Council England
Small Pleasures, part of Wild Imaginings, a creative research project supported by Creativity Works CIC
2024
Holding Space: Gem Arts Workshop series
New Shrines (Hope) workshop series, various locations, supported by Cultivate Commissions and The Auckland Project
Amulet Workshop, Oriental Museum, Durham, UK
Spennymoor Mural Festival (STRIKE COLLECTIVE), Spennymoor, UK
Entangling yourself in a spiderweb of the milky way: L-INK Artist Workshop, Laing Art Gallery, UK
2023
Conceal/Reveal: L-INK Artist Workshop, Laing Art Gallery, UK
2021
Sculpting Pixels, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK
Artist in Residence, Atelierhaus Salzamt, Linz, Austria
2019
YORKSHIRE SCULPTURE INTERNATIONAL Engagement Artist
Artist in Residence, Whickham Sixth Form, Gateshead
2017
Painting: Atoms and Speech Bubbles, Panel Chair, ICA London, 23 May
IOUAE Online Residency (15 May 2017 - 21 May 2017)
Remaking Memories Together, delivered in partnership with County Durham Libraries and the Bowes Museum, kindly supported by Arts Council England
Small Pleasures, part of Wild Imaginings, a creative research project supported by Creativity Works CIC
2024
Holding Space: Gem Arts Workshop series
New Shrines (Hope) workshop series, various locations, supported by Cultivate Commissions and The Auckland Project
Amulet Workshop, Oriental Museum, Durham, UK
Spennymoor Mural Festival (STRIKE COLLECTIVE), Spennymoor, UK
Entangling yourself in a spiderweb of the milky way: L-INK Artist Workshop, Laing Art Gallery, UK
2023
Conceal/Reveal: L-INK Artist Workshop, Laing Art Gallery, UK
2021
Sculpting Pixels, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK
Artist in Residence, Atelierhaus Salzamt, Linz, Austria
2019
YORKSHIRE SCULPTURE INTERNATIONAL Engagement Artist
Artist in Residence, Whickham Sixth Form, Gateshead
2017
Painting: Atoms and Speech Bubbles, Panel Chair, ICA London, 23 May
IOUAE Online Residency (15 May 2017 - 21 May 2017)
EXHIBITIONS
2026
Small Pleasures, Wharton Park, Durham, UK
2025
Remaking Memories Together, The Bowes Museum, UK
Zara Worth: Marking Space, Palace Green, Durham, UK
Nana's House, Castle Dene Shopping Centre, Peterlee, UK
2024
New Shrines (Hope), The Auckland Project, Bishop Auckland
Hold the Space, 62 Brown Street, Sheffield, UK
This is STRIKE COLLECTIVE, Durham University, Durham, UK
2023
I wish..., Shandy Hall, Coxwold, UK
Thinking-through images, York Art Gallery, UK
2022
SIN, York Art Gallery, UK
2021
LINZ FMR 2021: Art in digital contexts and public spaces, Linz, Austria
Food Matters and Materialities, Carleton University, Canada
2020
.Dot.Dot-Dash, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, UK
CRAFT, Thought Foundation, Gateshead, UK
2019
Presence, The Newbridge Project, Gateshead, UK
Create: Sculpt: Play, Victoria Gardens, Leeds, UK
Cognitive Conversations, FACT, Liverpool
'Cognitive Sensations' The X-Gallery, LJMU, Liverpool, UK
2018
Cognitive Sensations: Fields of Perception, THE CUBE, London
Instagram Expo, Atelier, Montreal, CA
FEED, Vane, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (solo show)
AVBody, Judaica Project at the University of Huddersfield, UK
'Smile (for Harold)' in MATERIAL ENVIRONMENTS for Harold Offeh, The Tetley, Leeds, UK
‘a-n Gallery Tally’ in ‘Gallery Tally’ at 'Fair', Art Fair, Miami, US
Four Words, Leeds Tech Hub, Leeds, UK - opening 23 November 2017
2017
Gallery Tally, in, Starless Midnight, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK
Zara Worth and Swipe-Specific Art, Omni-Modern, Texas, US
#HADADi, Campus North, Newcastle upon Tyne
Dialogus, Vane, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Summer Screening, H Space, Cleveland, Ohio, US
InAbstract, The University of Huddersfield
Roots and Wings, The House of Blah Blah, Middlesborough
'inhabit', IOUAE, Online Residency
2016
Tender Bodies Praxis, Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2015
Transmetic Ordonnance, Lewisham Art House, London, UK
2014
Draw In, St Margaret's House, Edinburgh, UK
Eulogy, Vane, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK [Curator and artist]
I Am What I Eat, [Festival of art and food] The Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2013
Initiate//Participate, Gallery North Project Space, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK [Curator and artist]
The Summer Salon, Haltwhistle Art Stop, Northumberland, UK
CACHE, ARC, Stockton upon Tees, UK
The Woon Art Prize, Gallery North, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (Shortlisted Artist)
Free range, The Old Truman Brewery, London, UK
Act Without Expectation, The Stand, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2012
Whitebread, Empty Shop, Durham, UK
One Thing After Another, Hoult's Yard, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
The DepARTure Foundation Student Art Prize, Sunderland, UK (Shortlisted Artist)
Dysmorphophobia, The Newbridge Project Annexe, Newcastle upon Tyne
2011
While the Ink is Wet, According to McGee, York
2010
The Harrogate Open, The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate
Small Pleasures, Wharton Park, Durham, UK
2025
Remaking Memories Together, The Bowes Museum, UK
Zara Worth: Marking Space, Palace Green, Durham, UK
Nana's House, Castle Dene Shopping Centre, Peterlee, UK
2024
New Shrines (Hope), The Auckland Project, Bishop Auckland
Hold the Space, 62 Brown Street, Sheffield, UK
This is STRIKE COLLECTIVE, Durham University, Durham, UK
2023
I wish..., Shandy Hall, Coxwold, UK
Thinking-through images, York Art Gallery, UK
2022
SIN, York Art Gallery, UK
2021
LINZ FMR 2021: Art in digital contexts and public spaces, Linz, Austria
Food Matters and Materialities, Carleton University, Canada
2020
.Dot.Dot-Dash, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, UK
CRAFT, Thought Foundation, Gateshead, UK
2019
Presence, The Newbridge Project, Gateshead, UK
Create: Sculpt: Play, Victoria Gardens, Leeds, UK
Cognitive Conversations, FACT, Liverpool
'Cognitive Sensations' The X-Gallery, LJMU, Liverpool, UK
2018
Cognitive Sensations: Fields of Perception, THE CUBE, London
Instagram Expo, Atelier, Montreal, CA
FEED, Vane, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (solo show)
AVBody, Judaica Project at the University of Huddersfield, UK
'Smile (for Harold)' in MATERIAL ENVIRONMENTS for Harold Offeh, The Tetley, Leeds, UK
‘a-n Gallery Tally’ in ‘Gallery Tally’ at 'Fair', Art Fair, Miami, US
Four Words, Leeds Tech Hub, Leeds, UK - opening 23 November 2017
2017
Gallery Tally, in, Starless Midnight, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK
Zara Worth and Swipe-Specific Art, Omni-Modern, Texas, US
#HADADi, Campus North, Newcastle upon Tyne
Dialogus, Vane, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Summer Screening, H Space, Cleveland, Ohio, US
InAbstract, The University of Huddersfield
Roots and Wings, The House of Blah Blah, Middlesborough
'inhabit', IOUAE, Online Residency
2016
Tender Bodies Praxis, Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2015
Transmetic Ordonnance, Lewisham Art House, London, UK
2014
Draw In, St Margaret's House, Edinburgh, UK
Eulogy, Vane, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK [Curator and artist]
I Am What I Eat, [Festival of art and food] The Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2013
Initiate//Participate, Gallery North Project Space, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK [Curator and artist]
The Summer Salon, Haltwhistle Art Stop, Northumberland, UK
CACHE, ARC, Stockton upon Tees, UK
The Woon Art Prize, Gallery North, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (Shortlisted Artist)
Free range, The Old Truman Brewery, London, UK
Act Without Expectation, The Stand, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2012
Whitebread, Empty Shop, Durham, UK
One Thing After Another, Hoult's Yard, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
The DepARTure Foundation Student Art Prize, Sunderland, UK (Shortlisted Artist)
Dysmorphophobia, The Newbridge Project Annexe, Newcastle upon Tyne
2011
While the Ink is Wet, According to McGee, York
2010
The Harrogate Open, The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate
AWARDS & GRANTS
2024 Seed Commission, Cultivate Commissions (No More Nowt and Northern Heartlands)
2019 Research and Development Grant, The Newbridge Project
2018 Grants for the Arts, Arts Council England
2017 Helix Arts #HADADi Bursary
2016 Leeds Beckett Doctoral Studentship
2014 Goldsmiths Postgraduate Scholarship
2014 YLCE Bursary
2013 The Woon Art Prize, Gallery North, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (Shortlisted Artist)
2012 The DepARTure Foundation Student Art Prize, Sunderland, UK (Shortlisted Artist)
2010 The Harrogate Open, The Mercer Art Gallery, (Highly Commended Prize)
2019 Research and Development Grant, The Newbridge Project
2018 Grants for the Arts, Arts Council England
2017 Helix Arts #HADADi Bursary
2016 Leeds Beckett Doctoral Studentship
2014 Goldsmiths Postgraduate Scholarship
2014 YLCE Bursary
2013 The Woon Art Prize, Gallery North, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (Shortlisted Artist)
2012 The DepARTure Foundation Student Art Prize, Sunderland, UK (Shortlisted Artist)
2010 The Harrogate Open, The Mercer Art Gallery, (Highly Commended Prize)