Annabelle Keyes - Biography

artist statement

I am an interdisciplinary contemporary artist from the South Coast, living and working in London. My practice is primarily involved with site-responsive, practice-based research projects, exploring spiritual resonances of place and navigation as a creative device. Through interrelations between themes of ecology, history, mythology and mysticism, I am interested in dialectical blurring of contrasting contexts, in pursuit of locating harmony.

A sense of terrestrial divinity is integral to my work. I seek to reveal the imperfect symmetry that reverberates throughout the forms of the physical plane, often manifesting in my work alongside examples of metaphysical dualities such as nostalgia and utopia, grief and belief, local and remote, past and present. I have always been drawn to investigate our relationship to place, notions of belonging and ancestral knowledge, and the persistent human urge to explore and learn.

My installations reflect on processes on enshrining, journeying, memorialising and reimagining. They are realised as amalgamations of fabricated, curated and recorded information, synthesising a variety of disciplines. These pieces are grounded by researched reference points, while simultaneously subverting or transforming empirical narratives through mythologised alternates. Often responding to specific locations, I consider fieldwork and first-hand research as integrally creatively generative and emotional experiences, entangled with my own personal histories and biases.

My installations materialise through sculpture, found object assemblages, photography, video and painting, creating eclectic spaces of sanctuary and ambiguity, inviting curiosity while reflecting the findings of my ongoing enquiry.

Solo Exhibitions

2024 Hydrologic Blessings, The Container, Bournemouth, England

Group Exhibitions

2025 Slow to Surface, Marylebone Church Crypt, London (upcoming)

Bikalpa Open Studio Exhibition, Bikalpa Art Foundation, Nepal

Maybe We Can Tangle and Reform, Lewisham Arthouse, Pistil Collective, London

World Building, Cornerstone Studios, Pistil Collective, London

Praxis, Umbrella Art Collective, Cardiff

2024 Unbound Perspectives, Metre Squared, London

Site-Sententia, BUG Gallery, Bournemouth

This and Other Worldly Glimpse, IAG Exhibitions, London

Escape from Tartarus, Safehouse 2, London