Ren Wolfe
At it's core, my work is creating spaces for people to shed the everyday.
I’m drawn to spaces where reality softens: carnivals, circuses, and old dusty theatres; places where the rules bend, identities shift, and anything can happen.
I do this through, first and foremost, a kind of soft world-building I refer to as "Psychic Gardening". My practice is an ever growing, sprawling, and expanding world of characters, places, symbols, and ideas; these coagulate together to create spaces/moments where reality and imagination meld, and the everyday is enchanted and the discarded is reborn.
I see the creation of these spaces as a kind of absurdist caregiving; giving people a moment to shed the weight of their everyday, to step into a new identity, to explore themselves and the world around them through a fantastical lens.
My work is born in the mediums of; sculpture, painting, installation, video, and costume. Accessibility and our relationship with waste are entrenched in the work I make, and reclaimed and recycled materials are at the heart of my making process; you can usually find me with a wadge of cardboard and a stapler in hand.
2025
Spring Promenade, Dinefwr National Trust, Llandeilo
Queering Wales Connecting People, Elysium Gallery, Swansea
2024
Albion/Albina, Centrespace Gallery, Bristol
The Garden of Making,
The National Festival of Making X Fred Aldous, Manchester
Bath Arts Fringe Festival, Bath
The Hissing Goose (performance), Carnedd, Cardiff
What Brings Us Joy, Umbrella Gallery, Cardiff
2023
County Fair “Art” Show, Umbrella Gallery, Cardiff
Pwsh Mural, Aubergine Cafe, Cardiff
The Art of Play, The Stradling Collection, Bristol
Queer Clown Cabaret, Umbrella Gallery, Cardiff
Mini Exhibition, Umbrella Gallery, Cardiff
The Cardboard Zoo, Dyddiau Du, Cardiff (Solo)
2022
Swamp Parti 2, Shift, Cardiff
The Cardboard Zoo, The Place, Newport (Solo)
Associates Show, Arcade Campfa, Cardiff
Ritual & Decay, Turner House, Penarth
Reimagination, Shift, Cardiff
On Your Face Collective Film Screenings, Glynn Vivian, Swansea
Queer Joy, The Hearth Gallery, Penarth
Swamp Parti, Shift, Cardiff
Portal, Llantarnam Grange, Cwmbran
Turner House Open Exhibition, Turner House, Penarth
Black Swan Arts Open, Black Swan Gallery, Frome
Masters Degree Show, Cardiff School of Art and Design, Cardiff
Auction for Afghan Womens Education, Umbrella Gallery, Cardiff
Made In Roath Open, g39 Gallery, Cardiff
Test Bed, Cardiff School of Art and Design, Cardiff
2021
Zone 10, Umbrella Gallery, Cardiff
Art Show, SHO Gallery, Cardiff
Show 4, Umbrella Gallery, Cardiff
Residencies
2022
The Place (Tin Shed Theatre), Newport, Wales
Helping Artists Keep Going
Axis is an artist-led charity supporting contemporary visual artists with resources, connection, and visibility.