Bio

Katriona Beales is an artist who makes digital artefacts, objects, moving image and installation as well as participatory projects. Her work responds to the social implications of new technologies and affective experiences in post-digital culture, with a particular interest in mental health. Katriona’s interdisciplinary project ‘Are We All Addicts Now?’ was supported by The Wellcome Trust and Arts Council England and was shown at Furtherfield in 2017. Recent work includes new commissions at the V&A and Science Gallery London (both 2018); a participatory green screen installation at Autograph (2020); a commission for Disrupt & Reflect, online at IMPAKT, Netherlands (2020-21) and a commission for Sotheby’s Institute of Art that premiered at the V&A (Sept 2023). Katriona received an MA from Chelsea College of Arts supported by a Stanley Picker Award and has an artist profile on Rhizome.org. In 2023-24 she received DYCP funding from Arts Council England.


Katriona is one of three original founding members of Artists' Union England and is currently on the National Executive Committee for AUE.

Katriona is the 2nd Year Leader of the BA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts, UAL.

Awards

• Arts Council England Develop Your Creative Practice (DYCP) Award (2023-24)
• Arts Council England Project Grant for an experimental online residency with Anna Bunting-Branch at the NHS' only Centre treating Gaming Disorder (2021-22)
• Selected for London Creative Network, SPACE (2021)
• Arts Council England Emergency Funding (2020)
• Shortlisted for P3 Post-Photography Prototyping Prize (2018)
• Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants (2018)
• Selected for the Worlds Amongst Us Retreat, Wysing Arts Centre (2017)
• SPACE Breathing Space Bursary (2017)
• Arts Council England Grants for the Arts Award (2017)
• Wellcome Trust Small Arts Award (2015-17)
• Recipient of Grants for the Arts funding from Arts Council England as part of LUX13 (2014)
• Shortlisted for the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award (2014)
• FlatTimeHo MFI Graduate Award (2013)
• Stanley Picker Award for MA Fine Art study at Chelsea College of Art and Design (2011-12)
• CCW Artist Moving Image Fund (2009-2010)
• ACE:NW Grants for the Arts to POST collective for Liverpool-Linz Artists' exchange (2009-10)

International exhibitions & residencies

• AUE Lab, a Research Residency led by Katriona Beales and Loraine Monk at Chelsea Space, UAL (2024)

• Screening at ars space, Seoul, Korea as part of ’10 years...’ (2022)
• Screening at Estacion Terrena, Bogota, Columbia as part of ’10 years...’ (2022)
• Showing as part of 'I am not a robot' at the Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary. (2022)
• 'Solace from the Wasteland I' part of 'Disrupt & Reflect' online at IMPAKT, Netherlands, curated by Nadine Roestenburg. View online: www.impakt.nl/channel/web-projects/disrupt-reflect/ (2020-ongoing)
• 'White Matter' at UNSW Gallery, Sydney, Australia in the second iteration of Group Therapy: Mental Distress in a Digital Age, curated by Vanessa Bartlett as part of The Anixety Festival. (2017)
• 'Mysterious Objects at Noon', Objectifs Gallery, Singapore (2015)
• Residency and Workshop with Tokyo Wonder Site, Japan (2012)
• 'Onsite Lab 6' collaborative group exhibition at Tokyo Wonder Site, Japan. (2012)
• ‘All the words have run out’ group exhibition at KunstRaum Goethestrasse xtd, part of NEXTCOMIC festival 2012, Linz, Austria (2012)
• ‘neverneverland’ at the MAERZ Artist Association, Linz Austria (2011)
•‘Linz-Liverpool’, MAERZ Artist Association, Linz, Austria (2010)
• ‘Urban Interventions’ residency with POST at the Altelierhaus Salzamt, Linz, Austria supported by Liverpool Biennial, LinzKultur and Platform Garanti, Istanbul (2010)
• Two research trips to Linz, Austria supported by the Bluecoat and the ACE:NW (2009+10)

Selected UK exhibitions

• Forthcoming: HOLD-RELEASE, showing at Old Street Digital Canvas, London (2024)

• ‘SIDESHOW’ at Lethaby Gallery, CSM, London (2024)

• ’10 years on...’ curated by Lana Locke and Rebecca Byrne, Camberwell Space, Camberwell School of Art, UAL. (2022)
• Waiting Room, curated by Anne Marie James (2021)
• Online: 'You’re in a computer game, Max!' curated by James Irwin on SKELF (2020)
• 'As we are but not as you know us' Interactive green-screen installation at Autograph, developed as part of the Family SEND programme. (2020)
• ArtsFeedrTM curated by Sapphire Paston at Art Hub Studios, part of Deptford X (2019)
• Contributed to FutureEverything's Future Sessions: Atmospheric Memory, part of Manchester International Festival. (2019)
• New work commissioned for 'HOOKED' curated by Hannah Redler at Science Gallery London, supported by ACE National Lottery Project Grant (2018)
• New work commissioned for 'Artificially Intelligent' curated by Irini Papamiditriou at the V&A (2017)
• 'Hybrid Landscapes' curated by Hannah Redler (ODI) at Digital Catapult, London (2017)
• 'SWAP Edition 1: AD HOC' curated by Robin Tarbet at Castor Projects, London (2017)
• 'Are we all addicts now?' Katriona Beales and Fiona MacDonald at Furtherfield, London (2017)
• 'Digital Monuments' curated by Naomi Ellis at Geddes Gallery, London (2016)
• CIPHER screened at the Photographers Gallery as part of the TPG Geekender Robot Vision Party (2016)
• 'Mysterious Objects at Noon' at Art Lacuna, London (2015)
• 'White Matter' commissioned by FACT for 'Group Therapy - mental distress in a digital age' curated by Vanessa Bartlett and Mike Stubbs at FACT, Liverpool (2015)
• Online: screening as part of PALA curated by Laura Mansfield (2015)
• 'How does the group function?' LUX13, Enclave Deptford, funded by ACE (2014)
• 'PRISM' Solo presentation at Art Lacuna as part of 'For One Night Only' series (2014)
• LUX13 Screening with FilmMaterialSoup at Castlefield, Manchester (2014)
• Project Visible, Tate Modern (2014)
• LUX13 Screening at Millenium, New York (2014)
• 'Studio. Tommorrow. Buy me things like machines.' organised by Claire McCardle, EastSide Studios Pop-Up Space, London (2014)
• LUX13 Critical Forum screening, at Cinema6, Arcadia Missa, London (2014)
• 'AntiKnow - A pedagogical theatre of unlearning and the limits of knowledge.' Directed by Jakob Jakobsen. FlatTimeHo, London (2013)
• 'The Future Lasts a Long Time', the Mental Furniture Industry group and FlatTimeHo at PAMI Festival, London (2013)
• Bow Arts Open 2013 'Mise-en-Scene' curated by Cullinan Richards, Bermondsey Project, London (2013)
• Discernible, ZAP Projects, London (2013)
• Open Work, Albert Projects, London (2013)
• SHIFT, Hanmi Gallery, London (2013)
• MA Final Show, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, UK (2012)
• wondersite, at the Japanese Embassy, London (2012)
• Without Boats Dreams Dry Up, with CapeFarewell, Triangle Space, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, UK (2012)
•PG Dip Final Show Chelsea College of Art and Design, London (2011)
•Pile, Chapter Gallery, Cardiff (2011)
•MySpace, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London (2011)
•Pile, Surface Gallery, Nottingham (2010)
•Terribility Studios Liverpool-London, Lost Soul & Stranger Service Station, part of The Co-operative Strand of the Liverpool Biennial (2010)
•National Sculpture Prize 2010, The Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool (2010)
• Global Studios, at the Bluecoat, Liverpool (2010)

Selected Press and Publications

• INTERVIEW ‘An Exclusive Interview with Katriona Beales’ by Ruth Catlow, about ‘Hope as an Act of Resistance - a sonic monument’ https://www.sothebysinstitute.com/news-and-events/news/an-exclusive-interview-with-artist-katriona-beales
• JOURNAL 'Are We All Addicts Now?' discussed at length in 'Digital design and time on device; how aesthetic experience can help illuminate the psychological impact of living in a digital culture' essay by Vanessa Bartlett in Digital Creativity (2019) vol 30 n. 3 177-195
• JOURNAL 'Unintended Consequences?' conversation with William Tunstell-Pedoe and originally commissioned by V&A, included in 'Interface Critique: Navigating the Human' 2019:02 eds. Florian Hadler, Daniel Irrgang, Alice Soine.
• BOOK 'Unintended Consequences?' conversation with William Tunstell-Pedoe and commissioned by Irini Papadimitriou, V&A included in 'Artificially Intelligent' (2018) published as part of the V&A Digital Design Weekend 2018.
• REVIEW of HOOKED by Jonathan Jones, published on the Guardian 19th Sept 2018 https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/sep/19/sex-drugs-and-social-media-hooked-review
• ARTICLE discussing 'White Matter' - 'The double bind affect - art and anxiety in a digital age' by Vanessa Bartlett in Artlink - Contemporary Art of Australia & Asia Pacific Issue 37:3 Sept 2017
• ARTICLE 'Artist explores internet addiction: 'I'm talking about conflicts at the heart of my life' article by Lydia Ashman, published on a-n 18th Sept 2017 https://www.a-n.co.uk/news/artist-explores-internet-addiction-im-talking-conflicts-heart-life
• INTERVIEW with Ruth Catlow, Furtherfield about ‘Are We All Addicts Now?’
http://furtherfield.org/features/interviews/are-we-all-addicts-now-interview-katriona-beales
• BOOK 'Are We All Addicts Now?' edited by Vanessa Bartlett and Henrietta Bowden-Jones, designed by Stefan Schager, published to coincide with the exhibition of the same name at Furtherfield (2017)
https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/products/100809
• ARTICLE 'Collaborating with Intelligent Machines' by Lucy Sollitt, an article featuring CIPHER for British Council (Mar/Apr 2017)
• FEATURE Ladybeard magazine - the Mind Issue - September 2016
• BOOK 'Group Therapy: Mental Distress in a Digital Age' (2015) published by Liverpool University Press
• INTERVIEW Artist Profile and interview with Morgan Quaintance on Rhizome.org
http://rhizome.org/editorial/2012/oct/16/artist-profile-katriona-beales/
• INTERVIEW with Sacha Waldron, Arts Editor for the Skinny
http://www.theskinny.co.uk/art/interviews/mental-distress

Education

  • MA in Fine Art supported by a Stanley Picker Award (2011-12) at Chelsea College of Arts, part of the University of the Arts London. Merit.

  • Post-Graduate Diploma in Fine Art (2011) Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts, London. Distinction.

  • BA Honours Fine Art (2005) Liverpool School of Art, LJMU. Distinction.

  • BTEC Foundation Course in Art & Design (2001) Amersham & Wycombe College. Distinction.

Lecturer and Workshop Leader

I am currently lecturing as an HPL at UAL on the BA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts and on the MA Art and Science at Central St Martins. I have worked as a visiting lecturer at many institutions such as Camberwell (MA Fine Art Digital); Chelsea (BA Fine Art); Oxford Brookes (BA Fine Art); Goldsmiths (MA Digital Arts Computing); Liverpool School of Art LJMU (BA Fine Art); the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methdologies (CIM) at the University of Warwick, Birkbeck University (MA Arts Policy and Management), Winchester School of Art (MA Fine Art) as well as FE contexts such as Havering College.

Since I received workshop leader training with Creative Partnerships in 2006 I have worked extensively as an artist educator and workshop leader. I was a TATE Artist Workshop Leader 2013-14 and the lead artist on South London Gallery's Supersmasher programme 2013-15. Since 2019 I have been the lead artist on Autograph's Family SEND programme and I delivered the Foundling Museum's social prescribing programme in partnership with MIND Camden 2021-22. I have a wealth of experience, particularly in working with SEND groups, KS4 and 5 students, PRUs and young people who are care- experienced. Other Clients include: Frieze Foundation, SPACE, Bow Arts Trust, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Tate Liverpool, Aspire Trust, Liverpool Art and Design Academy, the Bluecoat, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.