Lara Bell is a Bristol-based artist working across sculpture, installation, moving image and performance.
She is studying for an MA in Fine Art at the University of the West of England. In 2026 she was selected as a Sculptor to Watch for Cellar Door's International Women's Day programme and shortlisted for the Arts Thread Global Creative Graduate Showcase. Alongside her studio practice she makes couture hats to commission and runs community workshops.
Statement
My practice sits at the intersection of psychoanalysis, feminism and philosophy. I work with steel, concrete, human hair, carpet, fabric and film as a form of language beyond words.
I draw on Lacan's idea of language as reconstructive, Karen Barad's feminist new materialism, Freud's writing on the Uncanny and Carlo Rovelli's philosophy of time. Film, for me, is a form of memory: I use slit-scanning, shadow projection, chroma keying and glitch to make it strange.
CV
Exhibition · MA Graduate Showcase and Open Studios, Spike Island, Bristol
Exhibition · Making Meaning, Making Change (Reimagining Cinderella), Arnolfini, Bristol
Exhibition · AV Absurdist Jumble Sale, The Cube Microplex, Bristol
Exhibition · Cellar Door International Women's Day, The Louisiana, Bristol
Performance · Zeus on The Loose, performance, Doorworld, Bristol
Performance · Bread and Roses, performance and film
Exhibition · Hard Times, Schwartz Gallery, Hackney Wick, London
Exhibition · Menial and Trivial, The Mount Without, Bristol
Exhibition · Cellar Door International Women's Day, Strange Brew, Bristol
Performance · Death and Rebirth Ceremony, performance
Exhibition · 171st Annual Open Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Exhibition · Open Studios, InBristol Studios
Exhibition · The People's Art Fair, Stokes Croft, Bristol
Exhibition · Bath Arts Fringe, Bath
Exhibition · Bristol School of Art Show, Bristol
Exhibition · Opacity, Bower Ashton, UWE Bristol
Award · Sculptor to Watch, Cellar Door International Women's Day Programme
Award · Shortlisted, Arts Thread Global Creative Graduate Showcase, Fine Art
Award · Featured in Spike Island MA Show marketing
Education · MA Fine Art, University of the West of England, Bristol
Education · Access to Art and Design (Distinction), Bristol School of Art
Education · BTEC Millinery (Merit), Kensington and Chelsea College, London
Education · Hansard Society Research Scholar (Merit), London School of Economics
Education · BA English Literature and History (2:1), Cardiff University
Experience · Researcher and Arts Workshop Facilitator, Bath Spa University (Wellcome Trust-funded project)
Experience · Rage Painting Workshops, community practice
Experience · Couture hats made to commission