Annabelle Keyes - Biography

Annabelle Keyes (b. 2000, Hampshire).

I am an interdisciplinary contemporary artist based in Bournemouth, England. My practice is primarily involved with site-responsive, practice-based research projects, focusing on sacred encounters in the natural world. Through interrelations between themes of ecology, ethnography, mysticism and romance, I am interested in illustrating a dialectical blurring of both empirical and non-empirical methods of enquiry.

A sense of terrestrial divinity is integral to my work, I seek to reveal the imperfect symmetry that reverberates throughout the forms in the physical plane. These aesthetic interests often manifest in tandem with examples of metaphysical dualities: nostalgia and utopia, grief and belief, local and remote, masculine and feminine, for example.

My works are realised as amalgamations of generated and uncovered information, synthesising a variety of disciplines. These pieces are informed by historical, philosophical, cultural, ecological and religious reference points. Often responding to specific locations, I consider fieldwork and first-hand research as integrally creatively generative and spiritual experiences, urging me to challenge standardised methods.

My process is often initiated by intimate site-specific performances captured by and developed through photography and video. My installations further materialise through sculpture, found object assemblages and abstract painting, creating spaces of solace and introspection while proposing the findings of my ongoing enquiry.

Curriculum Vitae

Solo Exhibitions

2024 Hydrology of Blessings, The Container, Bournemouth, England

Group Exhibitions

2024 BUG Summer Residency Exhibition, BUG Gallery, Bournemouth, England (upcoming)

2024 Fine Art Graduate Exhibition, Northlight Studios, Bournemouth, England

2024 Green Futures Competition Shortlisted Artists, BUG Gallery, Bournemouth, England

2024 Fibrous Emblematics, BUG Gallery, Bournemouth, England

2024 Unearthed Motions, BUG Gallery, Bournemouth, England

2023 Young Artists Show, MCube Gallery, Lalitpur, Nepal

2021 Vivere, Bournemouth Natural Science Society, Bournemouth, England

2021 The Long Minute, The Less Good Idea, online exhibition