Bella Geldart (b.1998) is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Glasgow. Bella completed her Foundation Diploma in Art and Design in 2018 at Kingston School of Art, London, she then graduated from The Glasgow School of Art with a BA(Hons) degree in Sculpture and Environmental Art in 2021. Bella is the recipient of the 2023 RSA Art Prize with the Maclaine Watters Medal, and has recently exhibited in the 2023 New Contemporaries Exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy.
‘Informed by my love-hate relationship with British identity, my work aims to caricature the landscape of contemporary society. I draw upon familiar rituals, traditions and objects associated with British culture, which I isolate in their simplicity and present as iconography. The eccentricity of the human condition relies on a need for order and community as intrinsic aspects of our daily routines. I dissect the instructional prose of daily life, cultural events, and togetherness; influenced by identities inherited from the environments we live in and borrowed from culture consumed.
I am currently interested in the role sports plays as a theatre of the absurd and a spectre of nationalism, using the legacy of ‘The Olympic Games’ as a structure to investigate ideas surrounding play, applause, win and lose, and patriotism; subverting everyday behaviours through performative action. I present the sportsperson as a cultural figure, The Games providing a snapshot of modernity, contemporary iconography, and an arena of glory for mass consumption.
The process of making is central to my practice, interpreting my environment using humour and relatability. Through the initial process of drawing and writing, often from memory, I aim to create a candid translation of cultural iconography, which develops into performance scripts and sculptural plans. Working across the mediums of sculpture and performance I use the video camera, costumes, props and drawing to find form in relation to a particular site and context, investigating the relationship between live and recorded, permanent and impermanent, and the negotiation between improvised and directed.’
For all enquiries please contact: bellageldart98@gmail.com
CV
Education
2018 – 2021 BA(Hons) Fine Art: Sculpture & Environmental Art, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow
2018 Foundation Diploma in Art & Design, Kingston School of Art, London
Exhibitions
2023 RSA New Contemporaries, The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2021 TV Dinner #2 - Remote 242 at https://twofortytwostudios.com/TV-DINNER-2
2021 Interlude Film Festival, SWG3, Glasgow
2021 The Glasgow School of Art Graduate Showcase (Online)
2021 The Alternative Degree Show Festival: Part 1, The Briggait, Glasgow
2020 Inevitable Mash, Studio Pavilion at House for an Art Lover, Glasgow
2019 Mewantamoosicday, 10 North Frederick Street, Glasgow
2019 Get Liminal, The Old Police Station, Deptford, London
2019 Artists Against Abuse: A Soirée, Overlock Arts, Hackney, London
2019 SEAing is Believing, Barnes Building, Glasgow School of Art
2018 Hings N Bits, The Rum Shack, Glasgow
2018 Foundation Final Show, Kingston School of Art
2018 Artist as Machine: Swap Editions, New Shoreditch Theatre/Red Gallery, London
Awards
2023 RSA Art Prize with the Maclaine Watters Medal
Collections
UCL Special Collection, London
Publications
The Scotsman, ‘Art Reviews: Lotto Glob | New Contemporaries’, by Duncan Macmillan
https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/art/art-reviews-lotte-glob-new-contemporaries-4071396
The Herald, ‘Galleries: Chance to take a look at the work of the next generation’, by Jan Patience
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19444988.galleries-chance-take-look-work-next-generation/
GSA Graduate Showcase 2021
https://gsashowcase.net/isabelle-geldart/
The Skinny, June 2021 issue, preview of Graduate Showcase p.36
https://issuu.com/theskinny/docs/the_skinny_june_2021/28
Fourth Year SEA Website and Instagram, launched 2021
https://fourthyearsea.wordpress.com/artworks/
https://www.instagram.com/fourth.year.sea/
Showcase, SWAP Editions curated by Robin Tarbet, April 2018
https://www.swaparteditions.com/showcase.htm
Amy Rodgers, ‘PREVIEW: Hings N Bits at The Rum Shack’, Glasgow Guardian, Nov 2018 https://glasgowguardian.co.uk/2018/11/15/preview-hings-n-bits-at-the-rum-shak/