Fiona Campbell Art

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Fiona Campbell Art

I'm an artist, educator and curator. www.fionacampbellart.co.uk I now live and work in Somerset. I work in a linear way, constructing drawings in space.

Inspired by the natural world and environmental concerns, my work intersects sculpture, drawing and installation, using found and recycled materials. STATEMENT:

Born and bred in Kenya, I graduated with distinction in Fine Art, Sculpture from the Byam Shaw School of Art, London, later gaining a PGCE at Exeter University. I am interested in the natural world: latent energy, vitalism, the essence of

life, its cyclical persistence, the interconnectedness and threads weaving through all things. I create mixed media sculptures often wrought as nest-like structures echoing universal primal forms in an apparent state of emergence, growth or metamorphosis. Instinctive building processes such as wrapping, weaving and layering become a form of 3d mark making. The raw energy, longevity and varied patinas of steel, copper and wire have an interesting connection with other found and recycled materials. I like the concept of reusing things, giving them a rebirth and the playfulness of creating forms from given shapes. Alongside my practice as an artist, I teach art and run community projects. Awards include the Environmental award for Devon Recycled Sculpture TRAIL ’15, Atkinson Gallery Summer Show ’11 prize and 3d award for David Shepherd’s Wildlife Artist of the Year ‘09, London. Highly commended for my work as a Green Capital Artist for Bristol’s Big Green Week ’12, this involved exhibitions at the Create Centre, Arnolfini and sculptures floated in the harbour. In 2013 I was commissioned by Somerset Art Works & National Garden Scheme to create site-specific artworks for the Abundance Garden Trail. Giant Nest formed part of several installations. As a former co-founding member, I installed a sculpture trail with the Scraptors group at Stourhead National Trust Estate (’11) and Magdalen Project (’13). In 2015 I curated, managed and commissioned a successful Arts Council-funded project ‘step in stone’, in Somerset quarries making site-specific art with fourteen international artists. In 2016 I created the woven canopy for Sarah Eberle’s gold and best artisan award-winning Mekong Garden, Chelsea Flower Show. I am the East Mendip Rep for Somerset Art Works and a trustee of Black Swan Arts.

13/06/2026

Each work tells a story - not just its own internal construct but also that of its time and the artist’s concerns at that moment. Interesting to trace connections from one to the next. Sometimes there’s a sidestep before a return, but patterns and continuities emerge along the way.

Though visually disparate, I see each of these works as springboards to new directions in my practice. I became more passionate about environmentalism, and started combining more textiles - wrapping, binding, hand-stitching soft salvaged materials set against hard lines; fragility and strength.

Glut, 2018 (pics 1-3), was made on my MFA; Hope of a Tree, 2021 (4-5) created for Inch by IN:CH - an artist-led community project. Both link to my time at Bath Spa University ArtDesignBSU. In 2021, just after covid, a group of us who met on the MA decided to collaborate in a travelling project ‘Inch by IN:CH’ that took art to the people, in community spaces across South West UK: East Somerset Railway West Somerset Railway, Found Outdoors CIC, Frome town centre Frome Festival, Backwell Playhouse and a garage by the river Bath Artists' Studios. The project brought fruitful connections, we learnt from each other, and it led to exciting creative developments.

Five years on, some of us from IN:CH reconvene to review our previous journey and start another. ‘Where are we now?’ is an exhibition we’re curating in 44AD artspace Gallery, Bat44AD artspace, which then tours to (25–27 Sept & 2–4 Oct) for Somerset Art Works FestivaSomerset Art Worksude: Artists in Conversation (Wed 26 Aug, 6pm, dropin) & Children’s Workshop: Sketch & Sculpt (Sun 30 Aug, 11am–1pm) with me & . £12pp Book Eventbrite: https://shorturl.at/BHdoS

01/06/2026

Clad
41 x 31 x 36cm
Recycled materials: fabric, sponge, polyester stuffing, wool, thread, wire, steel
2026

I’ve been photographing new work in places that hold particular meaning for me.

Glastonbury Tor has long been associated with stories of flooding, pilgrimage, myth and survival. Rising above the Somerset Levels, it provides a compelling backdrop for a body of work concerned with precarious habitation and adaptation to environmental change.

My evolving stilt structures draw partly on the ancient Sweet Track that crossed the Avalon marshes. They question how we navigate instability and climate change, referencing fragile dwellings assembled from improvised supports. They also evoke nomadic forms of transport and shelter, where homes are carried, rebuilt and continually adapted.

These creature-like assemblages bring together hard and soft salvaged materials, bound and hand-stitched. The bundled forms speak to care, repair and resilience, while also carrying the social and political histories embedded within textiles.

I’m currently developing a series of smaller stilt structures alongside the larger works. If you’d like to hear about future pieces as they emerge, do get in touch.

21/05/2026

This time 10 years ago

Canopy
Recycled and found materials: copper wires, plastic cables, fruit nets, twine, wool, silk from Cambodia, fish bones, feathers
2016

So good to see the continued success of Sarah Eberle at Chelsea Flower Show. It takes me back to 10 years ago when Sarah commissioned me to create a 4m handwoven canopy for her Mekong Garden for at Chelsea Flower Show. The artisan garden was inspired by Cambodia’s floating gardens and artisanal fishing techniques in the Mekong river region.

I created a basic fine copper wire net structure, then weaved found materials into this. The layered surface including fruit net bags, silk reels brought back from Cambodia by Sarah and fish skeletons. The boat was made by .

The commission arose after Sarah saw my installation Lichen at the Maureen Michaelson Gallery stand at the Grow London fair in 2015.

The Mekong garden won gold and best artisan garden.

02/05/2026

These recent designs for a new Stilt Structure were hand drawn with pencil crayons. No AI involved in the designs. But I did feed a couple of my previous Stilt Structures into AI (chat GBT) to get ideas for a potential title for a show. I wasn’t hugely inspired by the suggested titles (‘The Weight of What Remains’, ‘Lines That Hold’, ‘Salvage as Structure‘), but I did quite like this description of the work:

“These are compelling pieces — awkward, balanced, a bit creature-like, and very materially honest. They feel improvised but intentional, like temporary beings assembled from leftovers of other lives. There’s also a strong sense of precarious balance + movement + structure acting like a body.“

Any ideas for an exhibition title featuring my Stilt Structures - I’d love to know!?

27/04/2026

Stilt Structure IV
Found, discarded, recycled materials: wood, jute, fabric (some naturally dyed), leather, polyester stuffing, feathers, sponge, copper wire, sisal, thread
174 x 76 x 78cms
2026

Developed from my series of Stilt Structures, which investigate precarity, resilience and adaptation. These works refer to fragile dwellings raised on make-do scaffolding to avoid floods and other threats; precarious structures in unstable environments that might collapse.

Somali nomads carry their homes - elaborate bundles - on overladen camels (symbols of adaptability, endurance, trade routes). My hybrid creature-like assemblage juxtaposes hard and soft salvaged elements. Bound and hand-stitched, the bundles carry politics of textiles, overconsumption and waste escalating in the name of human progress.

Photographed at my local steam railway

I’d love to know which, if any, is your favourite image?

25/04/2026

In celebration of International Sculpture Day!

Flags of the Forest

ISDay is a worldwide celebration held annually on the last Saturday of April to promote the creation, appreciation, and enjoyment of sculpture. Established by the , it features public art tours, studio visits, workshops, and exhibitions.

Excited that this piece Flags of the Forest will be featuring in
(5 Sept - 4 Oct) - also part of Somerset Art Weeks Festival 2026 (19 Sept - 4 Oct) and open weekend (12-13 Sept).

I re-appropriate found, discarded and reclaimed items, engaging with waste, and our shifting value systems. Labour-intensive processes - weaving, wrapping, hand-stitching, and ‘drawing in space’ - refer to lines of energy, threads through all things. They act as gestures of care, repair, resistance, a form of suturing, giving abandoned objects new life.

I’m open to commissions, and have sculptural work available for sale. Please visit my website (link in bio) for details, or DM me.

📷 2 & 3

source

14/04/2026

It’s been 10 years since I embarked on a Fine Art MFA at (2016-2018). I loved it, but it was hard having been out of academia for so long. I learnt much more about contemporary art practices. and had an amazing peer support group.

I recently did an interview for .alumni.

Here’s an excerpt:
BSA: Can you share a bit about what this journey has looked like for you?
Me: It’s been a wiggly journey. In my 20s, after my BA, I had several jobs while practising as an artist. I struggled financially, so decided to apply for a PGCE as a friend thought I’d be a good teacher. After a few years teaching art in secondary schools, I realised I needed to get back to my art practice. I had a young son, who I brought up as a single mum. It was hard juggling things, but I left my teaching job and went self-employed. I started getting commissions, awards, grants, selling work, featuring in solos and group shows, curated a large scale project in Mendip quarries called step in stone (ACE funded). But felt I needed to challenge my practice and find conceptual rigour, so took the plunge and did an MA at Bath Spa. Since then my work has developed very differently to pre MA days. Not as saleable, but more ambitious in many ways. I received a Gilbert Bayes Award and became a member of the . I’ve been involved in some exciting projects and residencies, including returning to Kenya for research as part of my DYCP, and residency. I now combine all of the above. And I still struggle financially!

Does any of this resonate with you?

Images:
1. Matter in Flux, 2017 📷 John Taylor
2. Glut, Of Bones, Accretion - MA Show 2018 📷John Taylor
3. Tongue, 2019 📷
4. Pyre, 2020
5. Snakes and Ladders I 2021 📷
6. Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand, 2022
7. Above and Below, 2023
8. Sack, 2024 .old.as.the.hills 📷
9. Riot, 2025
10. Unravelling the Fury, 2026

Address

Laundry Cottage, 13 Cooks Lane
Shepton Mallet
BA44RH

Telephone

+447515537224

Website

https://www.fionacampbellart.co.uk/

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