Ashleigh Beattie
About
Ashleigh Beattie is a Zimbabwean born visual artist based in Manchester. As an artist living in the African diaspora, her practice explores themes of migration, displacement and belonging through drawing, print, sculpture and installation. Beattie’s installations often make use of everyday and sometimes overlooked materials such as, newspapers and tin cans that are embedded with personal meaning and memories. This repurposing is central to her work and draws from her childhood growing up in Zimbabwe.
More recently Beattie has been exploring the geopolitics that surround issues of modern-day extraction and exhaustion of the land. Through the use of wild clay excavated by the artist herself, Beattie considers her position and relationship to the land of her past with the land she now inhabits and asks others to consider theirs also.
Upcoming News/ Exhibitions
Solo show at Bankley Gallery, Levenshulme Manchester,Preview 18th September 2026, 5:30- 8pm
2026 October : ‘The Bread Basket’ Comission for Sharing not hoarding, Dundee.
Solo Exhibitions
2025 May 'Musika', The Giving Tree, Manchester
2016 Jun In search of the Promised Land, Alexandria Library, Manchester
2010 May In search of the Promised Land, Carlisle Cathedral, Carlisle, England
Group Exhibitions
2026 Jun HOME: Manchester Open 2026, HOME Manchester
2026 Apr Out Here, Castlefield Gallery. https://www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk/event/out-here/.
2025 Oct Bankley Open 2025, Bankley Studios & Gallery, Levenshulme Manchester
2025 Sep Tree Postcards, Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield
2025 Jun 'Perambulator', part of the Horizons festival at HOME, Manchester
2021 Sep HOME: Manchester Open Art Exhibition, Manchester
2019 Mar Rocking The Boat, Creative Recycling Gallery, Chorlton, Manchester
2014 Mar The Luck Of Edenhall, The Old Fire Station, Carlisle
2010 Nov The Meeting Point, National Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
2009 Jul Summer Exhibition, Cecil Street Projects, Carlisle, England
2009 Jul Summer Exhibition, Bank Gallery, Carlisle, England
2009 Jun This side of Somewhere, University of Cumbria, Carlisle, England
2008 Dec Love in the Asylum, Wasps Studios, Glasgow, Scotland
2008 Sep Liquidizer, Vault Gallery, Lancaster, England
2008 Feb Seconds Out- Redefined, University of Cumbria, Carlisle, England
Consultancy
2024-25 Lowry Artist advisory group, The Lowry, Salford
Workshops
2025 May 'WAST Horizons project', HOME, Manchester
2025 March 'Speak Up' Programme with Lowry and National Theatre , Salford
2023 October Temporary shelters, Leeds City of Culture 2023, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
2023 August Temporary Shelters, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
2022 October Teacher CPD, Sculpting Landscapes, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
2022 August Sculpting landscapes, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
Higher Education
2005-2009 2:1 Bachelors of Fine Art (HONS) University of Cumbria, U.K.
Grants/ Awards/ Residencies
2007-2009 University of Cumbria, Undergraduate Scholarship
2009 Undergraduate Arts Achievement Award, University of Cumbria
Commissions
2013 Nov Illustration for cover of GWC Annual Report, Cape Town, South Africa
Reviews/ Press
https://www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk/event/out-here/.
https://homemcr.org/whats-on/306/mon-2-jun-sun-29-jun/perambulator-by-ashleigh-beattie
https://www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk/castlefield-gallery-associates-spotlight-ashleigh-beattie/
https://axisweb.org/blog/take-me-back-to-when-the-world-made-sense
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