Helen Sear

Welsh photographer (born 1955)

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Helen Sear RA (born 1955) is a British mixed media artist specialising in photography and moving image.

Early life

Helen Sear was born in Banbury, England, in 1955 and grew up in the West Midlands.^[1] Her mother was a teacher and her father a maxillo-facial surgeon and she has two younger brothers.

Career

Sear studied Fine Art at Reading University and University College London, and she studied at Slade School. In the late 1980s, she worked primarily through installation, performance, and film. Her photographic works were included in the 1991 British Council exhibition "De-Composition: Constructed Photography in Britain",^[2] which toured Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Sear received an Abbey Award in 1993 at the British School in Rome.^[3] She won joint first prize for visual art at the National Eisteddfod in Wales in 2011,^[4] and was the recipient of an Arts Council of Wales Creative Wales Award to develop new work.^[5] Ffotogallery, Wales' national agency for photography published her first major monograph in 2012, Inside the View,^[6] which was nominated for best international photography book at PHotoEspaña.^[7] In 2013, she was awarded the Wakelin Award^[8] for her work Chameleon, which became a part of the contemporary art collection at Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and museum. In 2015, Sear made a solo presentation for Wales at the 56th Venice Biennale 2015.^[9]

She has been described as a formalist feminist and counts Max Ernst as an inspiration, noting the paganism of Samuel Palmer, William Blake, and Paul Nash, but also quoting the Pre-Raphaelites.^[10]

Sear was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in March 2024.^[11]

Personal life

Her studio is in Burgundy, France, where she lives. She is married to the Swiss painter Andreas Ruethi.

Notable exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Gone to Earth, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, 1994
Twice... Once, Anderson O’Day London, 1998
Zelda Cheatle Gallery, 2000

Inside The View, Klompching Gallery, New York, US, 2009 ^[12]

Beyond The View', Klompching Gallery, New York, US, 2010^[13]
Display, G39 Cardiff, 2009^[14]
Beyond The View, Bildkultur, Stuttgart, 2012^[15]

Sightlines and Pastoral Monuments, Klompching Gallery, New York, US 2012 ^[16]

Lure, Oriel Davies national touring exhibition, 2013^[4]
Pastoral Monuments, Les Rencontres Internationales, Gaspésie Canada, 2014^[17]

Helen Sear, Klompchng Gallery, New York, US 2015 ^[18]

Helen Sear: New Work, Klompching Gallery, New York, US 2017 ^[19]

Group exhibitions

British Council touring Exhibition De-Composition, constructed photography in Britain. 1991–1998^[2]
Moments of Capture, Museum of Modern Art, Skopje, Macedonia
A Quality of Light, Office of Art project, Tate Gallery, St. Ives, 1997
Here to Stay, Arts Council of England purchases from the 1990s LaUSnne, Switzerland, 1998
Je t’envisage, la disparition du portrait: Musée de L’Elysée,
About Face, Hayward Gallery, London, 2004
La Mirada Reflexiva, Espai D’Art Contemporani de Castellon, Spain, (with Robert Longo and Perejaume ), 2005
Nothing Is In The Place, Kraków (Photo month), 2010^[20]
We Have The Mirrors, We Have The Plans: Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales, 2010^[21]
Paris Photo, Aperture Foundation New York, 2011
Portmanteau, Halle 14 Leipzig, 2011^[22]
Hijacked 111, Derby Quad, 2012^[23]
New Perspectives: Landscape Art in Wales since the 1970s, National Museum Wales, 2012
Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, London, 2014^[24]

Publications

Natural’s Not in It John Slyce Portfolio no. 35 (2002)
Face. The New Photographic Portrait. Thames and Hudson (2006) ^[25]
Inside the View (2012)^[6]
Brisées (2013) ^[26]

References

^ "Helen Sear". Hundred Heroines. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
^ ^a ^b British Council. "Exhibitions - Current - DECOMPOSITION - British Council − Visual Arts". britishcouncil.org.
^ "Helen Sear: Artist's Talk « The British School at Rome". bsr.ac.uk.
^ ^a ^b "Lure". orieldavies.org.
^ "Arts Council of Wales | Helen Sear". Archived from the original on 16 February 2015. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
^ ^a ^b "Helen Sear - Inside the View - Ffotogallery". ffotogallery.org.
^ Contemporary Art Society. "Helen Sear - Contemporary Art Society". contemporaryartsociety.org.
^ "Helen Sear wins The Wakelin Award 2013". WIRAD. Archived from the original on 16 February 2015.
^ "Arts Council of Wales | the 2015 Cymru yn Fenis / Wales in Venice Exhibition". Archived from the original on 16 February 2015. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
^ "Helen Sear, artist: 'I am trying to slow down the instantaneousness of". The Independent. 12 March 2015. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
^ "Helen Sear | Artist | Royal Academy of Arts". Royal Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on 11 May 2024. Retrieved 11 May 2024.
^ "KLOMPCHING GALLERY — Past Exhibitions 2009". KLOMPCHING GALLERY.
^ "KLOMPCHING GALLERY — Past Exhibitions 2010". KLOMPCHING GALLERY.
^ g39.org. "g - 39". g39.org.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ "bildkultur Stuttgart, HELEN SEAR – BEYOND THE VIEW". bildkultur.de.
^ "KLOMPCHING GALLERY — Past Exhibitions 2012". KLOMPCHING GALLERY.
^ "Helen Sear at Maria". photogaspesie.ca. Archived from the original on 16 February 2015.
^ "KLOMPCHING GALLERY — Past Exhibitions 2015". KLOMPCHING GALLERY.
^ "KLOMPCHING GALLERY — Upcoming Exhibitions". KLOMPCHING GALLERY.
^ "Miesiąc Fotografii w Krakowie 2012 -- Photomonth in Krakow 2012". photomonth.com.
^ "We Have The Mirrors, We Have The Plans". mostyn.org. Archived from the original on 16 February 2015.
^ g39.org. "g - 39". g39.org.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ "Hijacked III: Contemporary Photography from Australia and the UK". QUAD. Archived from the original on 16 February 2015.
^ "Summer Exhibition 2014 - Exhibition - Royal Academy of Arts". royalacademy.org.uk.
^ "Thames & Hudson Publishers - Essential illustrated art books - Face - The New Photographic Portrait". thamesandhudson.com.
^ "Brisées - 2013". Helen SEAR. Archived from the original on 16 February 2015.