{{Short description|British artist (born 1955)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Use British English|date=May 2024}}

'''Helen Sear''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|RA}} (born 1955) is a British visual artist specialising in photography and moving image.

==Biography== Helen Sear was born in Banbury, England, in 1955 and grew up in the West Midlands.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Helen Sear |url=https://hundredheroines.org/heroine/helen-sear/ |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=Hundred Heroines |language=en-GB}}</ref> Her mother was a teacher and her father a maxillo-facial surgeon and she has two younger brothers.

She was introduced to the natural environment through regular family walks, during which her father shared his knowledge of plants and wildlife.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2015-03-12 |title=Helen Sear, artist: 'I am trying to slow down the instantaneousness of |url=https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/art/features/helen-sear-artist-i-am-trying-to-slow-down-the-instantaneousness-of-the-camera-10103835.html |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref> This early exposure nurtured her connection with the natural world and shaped her enduring interest in visualizing and interpreting elements of the landscape as bodies inseparable from our own human forms<ref>{{Cite web |last=Photographie |first=L'Œil de la |date=2017-04-05 |title=Helen Sear, nature is magic |url=https://loeildelaphotographie.com/en/helen-sear-nature-is-magic/ |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=The Eye of Photography Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref> (e.g., Anatomy of a Tree, Royal Academy, 2025).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.contemporaryartsociety.org/artist-members/helen-sear|title=Helen Sear - Contemporary Art Society|author=Contemporary Art Society|work=contemporaryartsociety.org}}</ref>

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",<ref name="British Council">{{cite web|url=http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/exhibitions/exhibition/decomposition-1991|title=Exhibitions - Current - DECOMPOSITION - British Council − Visual Arts|author=British Council|work=britishcouncil.org}}</ref> which toured Latin America and Eastern Europe.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bsr.ac.uk/12055|title=Helen Sear: Artist's Talk « The British School at Rome|work=bsr.ac.uk}}</ref><ref name="orieldavies.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.orieldavies.org/en/exhibition/lure|title=Lure|work=orieldavies.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.artswales.org.uk/arts-in-wales/inspire/make/creative-wales/creative-wales-archive/awards-2010-11/helen-sear |title=Arts Council of Wales &#124; Helen Sear |access-date=2015-02-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216155103/http://www.artswales.org.uk/arts-in-wales/inspire/make/creative-wales/creative-wales-archive/awards-2010-11/helen-sear |archive-date=2015-02-16 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=http://www.ffotogallery.org/helen-sear-inside-the-view|title=Helen Sear - Inside the View - Ffotogallery|work=ffotogallery.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.artscouncilofwales.org/arts-in-wales/venice/the-2015-exhibition |title=Arts Council of Wales &#124; the 2015 Cymru yn Fenis / Wales in Venice Exhibition |access-date=2015-02-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216155930/http://www.artscouncilofwales.org/arts-in-wales/venice/the-2015-exhibition |archive-date=2015-02-16 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-03-12 |title=Helen Sear, artist: 'I am trying to slow down the instantaneousness of |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/helen-sear-artist-i-am-trying-to-slow-down-the-instantaneousness-of-the-camera-10103835.html |access-date=2023-10-06 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref>

She was awarded a PhD by publication in 2009 at the University of Wales Newport titled Reconstructing Experience.<ref name=":0" />

Sear was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in March 2024.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Helen Sear {{!}} Artist {{!}} Royal Academy of Arts |url=https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/helen-sear-ra |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240511154140/https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/helen-sear-ra |archive-date=11 May 2024 |access-date=11 May 2024 |website=Royal Academy of Arts}}</ref>

== Career == Sear's work first came to prominence internationally through her participation in the British Council's 1991 touring exhibition ''De-Composition: Constructed Photography in Britain,'' which toured Eastern Europe and Latin America ''until 1998''. <ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-11-01 |title=De-Composition. Constructed Photography from Great Britain {{!}} Ludwig Museum |url=https://www.ludwigmuseum.hu/en/exhibition/de-composition-constructed-photography-great-britain |access-date=2025-08-26 |website=www.ludwigmuseum.hu |language=en}}</ref>

Her practice, rooted in Magic Realism, Surrealism, and Conceptual Art, frequently explores themes of vision, touch and relationships between figure and landscape.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=2021-08-12 |title=Helen Sear – Beyond the View {{!}} The Photographers Gallery |url=https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/photography-culture/helen-sear-beyond-view |access-date=2025-08-26 |website=thephotographersgallery.org.uk |language=en}}</ref>

She has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, with notable solo shows in Copenhagen at Martin Asbæk Gallery, New York (Klompching Gallery in Brooklyn), Stuttgart, Eindhoven, and London at, both at the Anderson O’Day Gallery and Zelda Cheatle Gallery, where she developed a technique of making (non-contact) prints from 2 negatives that disrupted a conventional approach to portraiture, blurring the boundaries of both facial recognition and figure and ground.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Natural Fantastic |url=https://martinasbaek.com/exhibitions/natural-fantastic/ |access-date=2025-08-26 |website=Martin Asbæk Gallery}}</ref>

=== Wales in Venice 2015 === In 2015, Helen Sear was selected as the first woman to represent Wales with a solo exhibition at the 56th Venice Biennale. Curated by Stuart Cameron and Ffotogallery and commissioned by the Arts Council of Wales, the exhibition, titled ''…the rest is smoke'', was housed at Santa Maria Ausiliatrice in Venice.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Helen Sear: …the rest is smoke |url=https://www.glynnvivian.co.uk/whats-on/helen-sear-the-rest-is-smoke/ |access-date=2025-08-26 |website=www.glynnvivian.co.uk}}</ref>

== Artistic practice == Sear's work consistently blurs the boundaries between photography, and other Fine Art traditions, notably painting.<ref name=":1" /> She often manipulates images by layering, re-photographing, digitally drawing, and texturing surfaces. Her ''Becoming Forest'' series involved tracing lines of forest growth with a digital pen, juxtaposed with foresters’ fluorescent spray marks, highlighting both natural processes and human intervention.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Helen Sear: Prospect Refuge Hazard |url=http://www.impressions-gallery.com/event/prospect-refuge-hazard/ |access-date=2025-09-04 |website=Impressions |language=en}}</ref>

Much of her recent work centers on rural Wales and France, where she examines landscapes as both sites of beauty and zones of control, production, and consumption.<ref name=":22">{{Cite web |date=2021-08-12 |title=Helen Sear – Beyond the View {{!}} The Photographers Gallery |url=https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/photography-culture/helen-sear-beyond-view |access-date=2025-08-26 |website=thephotographersgallery.org.uk |language=en}}</ref> She has also drawn on her experience of moving through forests, collecting imagery over extended periods to produce highly crafted installations that require deep viewer engagement.<ref name=":32">{{Cite web |title=Helen Sear: …the rest is smoke |url=https://www.glynnvivian.co.uk/whats-on/helen-sear-the-rest-is-smoke/ |access-date=2025-08-26 |website=www.glynnvivian.co.uk}}</ref>

Sear’s video work ''wahaha biota'' was made during a year long Arts Council of England commission to work with the Forestry Commission England in Dalby Forest Yorkshire<ref>{{Cite web |title=Helen Sear: Prospect Refuge Hazard |url=http://www.impressions-gallery.com/event/prospect-refuge-hazard/ |access-date=2025-09-04 |website=Impressions |language=en}}</ref> and with curator Stuart Cameron, then director of Crescent Arts Scarborough has been shown across the UK, Netherlands, and Switzerland (2018–2019). <ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-02-01 |title=Artist Helen Sear’s nature exhibition in Bradford |url=https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/arts-and-culture/artist-helen-sears-nature-exhibition-in-bradford-138155 |access-date=2025-09-04 |website=Yorkshire Post |language=en}}</ref>

== Personal life == Her studio is in Burgundy, France, where she lives. She is married to the Swiss painter Andreas Rüthi.

==Selected 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 <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.klompching.com/past-exhibitions-2009|title=KLOMPCHING GALLERY — Past Exhibitions 2009|website=KLOMPCHING GALLERY}}</ref> *Beyond The View', Klompching Gallery, New York, US, 2010<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.klompching.com/past-exhibitions-2010|title=KLOMPCHING GALLERY — Past Exhibitions 2010|website=KLOMPCHING GALLERY}}</ref> *Display, G39 Cardiff, 2009<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.g39.org/cgi-bin/website.cgi?place=exhibitions&id=169&image=3|title=g - 39|author=g39.org|work=g39.org}}</ref> *Beyond The View, Bildkultur, Stuttgart, 2012<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bildkultur.de/helen_sear.html|title=bildkultur Stuttgart, HELEN SEAR – BEYOND THE VIEW|work=bildkultur.de}}</ref> ''Sightlines and Pastoral Monuments'', Klompching Gallery, New York, US 2012 <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.klompching.com/past-exhibitions-2012|title=KLOMPCHING GALLERY — Past Exhibitions 2012|website=KLOMPCHING GALLERY}}</ref> *Lure, Oriel Davies national touring exhibition, 2013<ref name="orieldavies.org"/> *Pastoral Monuments, Les Rencontres Internationales, Gaspésie Canada, 2014<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.photogaspesie.ca/en/portfolio-item/helen-sear-a-maria/ |title=Helen Sear at Maria |work=photogaspesie.ca |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216171030/http://www.photogaspesie.ca/en/portfolio-item/helen-sear-a-maria/ |archivedate=2015-02-16 }}</ref> ''Helen Sear'', Klompchng Gallery, New York, US 2015 <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.klompching.com/past-exhibitions-2015|title=KLOMPCHING GALLERY — Past Exhibitions 2015|website=KLOMPCHING GALLERY}}</ref>

''Helen Sear: New Work'', Klompching Gallery, New York, US 2017 <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.klompching.com/upcoming-exhibitions|title=KLOMPCHING GALLERY — Upcoming Exhibitions|website=KLOMPCHING GALLERY}}</ref>

===Group exhibitions=== *British Council touring Exhibition De-Composition, constructed photography in Britain. 1991–1998<ref name="British Council"/> *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<ref>{{cite web|url=http://2013.photomonth.com/index.php/en/page/21/nothing-is-in-the-place-curatorial-project-by-jason-evans.html|title=Miesiąc Fotografii w Krakowie 2012 -- Photomonth in Krakow 2012|work=photomonth.com}}</ref> *We Have The Mirrors, We Have The Plans: Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales, 2010<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mostyn.org/whats_on/we_have_the_mirrors_we_have_the_plans |title=We Have The Mirrors, We Have The Plans |work=mostyn.org |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216173923/http://www.mostyn.org/whats_on/we_have_the_mirrors_we_have_the_plans |archivedate=2015-02-16 }}</ref> *Paris Photo, Aperture Foundation New York, 2011 *Portmanteau, Halle 14 Leipzig, 2011<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.g39.org/cgi-bin/website.cgi?place=exhibitions&id=927|title=g - 39|author=g39.org|work=g39.org}}</ref> *Hijacked 111, Derby Quad, 2012<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.derbyquad.co.uk/exhibition/hijacked-iii-contemporary-photography-australia-and-uk |title=Hijacked III: Contemporary Photography from Australia and the UK |work=QUAD |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216160316/http://www.derbyquad.co.uk/exhibition/hijacked-iii-contemporary-photography-australia-and-uk |archivedate=2015-02-16 }}</ref> *New Perspectives: Landscape Art in Wales since the 1970s, National Museum Wales, 2012 * Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, London, 2014<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/15|title=Summer Exhibition 2014 - Exhibition - Royal Academy of Arts|work=royalacademy.org.uk}}</ref>

==Publications== *''Natural’s Not in It John Slyce Portfolio no. 35'' (2002) *''Face. The New Photographic Portrait. Thames and Hudson'' (2006)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thamesandhudson.com/Face/9780500287323|title=Thames & Hudson Publishers - Essential illustrated art books - Face - The New Photographic Portrait|work=thamesandhudson.com}}</ref> *''Inside the View'' (2012)<ref name="auto"/> *''Brisées'' (2013)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://helensear.com/2013/09/26/brisees-2013 |title=Brisées - 2013 |work=Helen SEAR |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216201253/http://helensear.com/2013/09/26/brisees-2013/ |archivedate=2015-02-16 }}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{official website|http://www.helensear.com}} * [http://www.klompching.com/ Klompching]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sear, Helen}}

Category:Welsh women photographers Category:Welsh artists Category:Alumni of the University of Reading Category:Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Category:People associated with the University of South Wales Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:Welsh contemporary artists Category:20th-century Welsh photographers Category:21st-century Welsh photographers Category:20th-century British women photographers Category:21st-century British women photographers