Stella Tripp
My work involves a challenging exploration of what art can do. An awareness of the history of art informs and enriches the visual language I use. Years ago, in America, I stopped using rectangular stretched canvas and started building makeshift constructions to paint on, that better reflected my situation and my state of mind. I studied art from different cultures and times: exploring the nature of art in the light of cultural and societal conditioning opened my eyes to unlimited possibilities.
I work completely openly, questioning everything and making connections. Inspiration comes from the totality of experience: things I think, feel, hear, remember, as well as what I see; and I interpret it using a broad art vocabulary in a variety of media. The process of creating is important: an engagement with the physical sensuality of materials; the challenge of combining real shapes and textures with painted ones: the alchemy of transformation. I like to work around the edges and in the gaps: between drawing, painting and sculpture, between figurative work and abstraction - exploring the nature of reality, both gentle and brutal: the fragility of the world and our engagement with it – and revelling in the language of art.
Qualifications and training
1983 - MFA, Southern Illinois University, USA
1981 - MA Fine Art, Eastern Illinois University, USA
1976 - BA (Hons) Fine Art, Portsmouth Polytechnic
Selected Solo exhibitions
2026 - Once Removed, Vitrine, Exeter
2024 - The China Spaniel, One-To-Ten Miniature Gallery, Hastings
2018 - Art Week Exeter (2 venues) Exeter, Devon
2017 - Café@36, Art Week Exeter
2017 - Sept for September, Boatyard Café and Bakery, Exeter
2016 - Displace Meant Activity, Gallery 333, Exeter Phoenix, Exeter Devon
2015 - Pop-Up Gallery, Exeter, Devon
2013 - Exeter Open Studios, Exeter, Devon
2006 - High Steel Blues, IAIS, University of Exeter, Exeter, Devon
2005 - Summer Collection, Phoenix Arts Centre, Exeter, Devon
2004 - Constructions in Colour, Atelier Gallery, University of Exeter, Devon
2000 - The Spider's Palace, Art Haven, Exeter, Devon
1995 - Seeds Of Celebration, International Cultural Center for Youth, Jerusalem, Israel
Selected Group exhibitions
2026 - Filthy Lucre, RAAY, Plymouth
2026 - Flight, Pink Tardis Gallery, Dagenham Heathway
2026 - Dialogues 2, Discovering 42, FLAMM, Bodmin, Cornwall
2025 - Bath Open Art Prize, 44AD Gallery, Bath
2025 - Dialogues, The Plough Arts Centre, Torrington, Devon
2025 - How The Light Gets In, GPS Gallery, Soho, London
2025 - Where are we now?, Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Honiton, Devon
2025 - Studio KIND Summer Open, Barnstaple, Devon
2025 - Thelma Hulbert Gallery Open, Honiton, Devon
2025 - English Riviera Summer Open, Artizan Gallery, Torquay
2025 - Small Worlds 2, Hans Falcks Hus, Aabenraa, Denmark
2025 - The State We’re In, Terre Verte Gallery, Altarnun, nr Launceston, Cornwall
2025 - Creative Integration, Studio 36, Exeter
2025 - The End, Artist Book Fair, The Exchange, Penzance
2024 - StudioKind Summer Open, Barnstaple, Devon
2024 - Black Swan Arts Open, Frome, Somerset
2024 - Through Line, Maltings Taphouse Gallery, Newton Abbot, Devon
2024 - Artizan Summer Open, Artizan Gallery, Torquay
2024 - ACT With The Arts Climate Festival, Sherborne House, Newton Abbot, Devon
2024 - Ilminster Art Centre Open, Somerset
2024 - It Rose And It Fell, Terrace Open, Patchworks, London
2024 - Artizan Women’s Open, Artizan Gallery, Torquay, Devon (also 2023)
2024 - Murmuration, J\M Gallery, London
2024 - A Social Exchange, Exeter Custom House
2024 - Out With The Old, In With The New, Studio KIND, Barnstaple, Devon
2023 - English Riviera Winter Open, Artizan Gallery, Torquay, Devon
2023 - Art and Artefact, MakeTank, Exeter, Devon (four-person show, sponsored by Art Haven)
2023 - Summer Open, Studio Kind, Braunton, Devon
2023 - #Instructions2LiveBy with Preston Street Union, Central Library, Exeter, Devon
2022 - Wordplay Fringe Arts Bath 44 AD Artspace, Bath
2022 - Green Hill Arts Open, Moretonhampstead, Devon
2022 - Beyond The 4 Walls, The Old Brick Workshop, Wellington, Somerset
2022 - Re:Wild, MakeTank, Exeter
2021 - Bath Open Art Prize, 44 AD Artspace, Bath (also 2019)
2021 - Displace Meant Activity, Wells Art Contemporary, installation in Wells Cathedral
2021 - Open Fragment, Pragmata Collective, https://pragmatacollective.co.uk/
2021 - Urban Bonsai, Collect Connect, part of the Urban Tree Festival, London
2021 - Restriction, Correspondence Collective, Clayhill Arts, Bridgwater, Somerset
2020 - Lockdown, Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield; Together Apart, That Art Gallery, Bristol
2020 - Humanising medicine, Being Human Festival, Queen Mary University, London
2020 - Open Minded, Albe Art Gallery, https://www.albeartgallery.com/openminded
2020 - Sentinel Trees, Collect Connect, part of the Urban Tree Festival, London
2020 - Anyone may come and go Collaborative project with Preston Street Union, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter. Commissioned by RAMM, funded by ACE
2019 - Serge/Surge with Preston Street Union, Exeter. Commissioned by RAMM, funded by ACE
2019 - Love Tokens and Bad Pennies, Unsettled Gallery, London; ORGANIC ARTS, Exeter
2019 - FRWA open exhibition, RWA, Bristol
2019 - The Art of Caring, St Georges and St Pancras Hospitals, London (also 2018, 17, 16, 15)
2019 - Late Summer Exhibition, Frickleton Fine Art, Kent
2018 - Listening towers, Small World Futures, Unsettled Gallery, London
2017 - Alternative Facts Factory, organicARTS, West Town Farm, Ide, Exeter
2017 - Bandwidth, Art Haven, PS45, Exeter
2017 - The Observatory, The Forum, University of Exeter
2017 - The Art Of Caring, St George’s Hospital and St Pancras Hospital, London
2017 - Refuge, FAB 2, Bath
2017 - Helluo Librorum, with Preston Street Union for Art Week Exeter, Exeter Library
2017 - Makers of the Multiverse, Juneau Projects, Spacex, Exeter
2017 - The Preston Street Union Random Art Machine, PS45, Art Week Exeter
2017 - Pay & Display, Centrespace Gallery, Bristol
2016 - The Art of Caring, St Pancras Hospital, London and Rose Theatre, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey
2016 - The Open Square, Royal United Hospital, Bath
2016 - A Letter In Mind, Gallery@Oxo, London
2015 - In And Out Of The Frame, The Glorious Art House, Exeter, Devon
2015 - Roper Gallery, BAS, Bath
2015 - Definitely Devon, RAMM Exeter, Devon
2015 - The Art of Caring, Rose Theatre, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey
2014 - The Bowie Gallery, Totnes, Devon (also 2009 - 13);
2014 - Hidden Treasure Tearoom, Exeter (also 2013)
2014 - Art@96, Topsham, Devon (also 2013)
2013 - Creekside Open, A.P.T. Gallery, London
2013 - Art Haven@ Redearth Gallery, Tiverton, Devon (also 2011, 2012)
2011 - The Bowie Gallery, Totnes, Devon (also 2009, 2010)
2011 - Magnet Art: Light Bite, Nottingham; Brighton Open, Brighton Pier; Rarities, Hastings,
2011 - MOAP, New Hampshire, USA
2009 - Art Haven: Same River Different Water, Piazza Terracina, Exeter
2009 - Drawn In , Sidcot Arts Centre, Winscombe, Somerset
2008 - Art Haven 2008, Gallery 86, Crediton, Devon
2008 - Cork Street Annual Open Exhibition for Charity, Cork Street Gallery, London
2007 - The Big Works, Gallery Terracina, Exeter, Devon
2005 - "Reasons to Love the Earth", Leeuwenbergh, Utrecht
2005 - "Small Originals", Gallery 22, Ashburton, Devon
2005 - Art Bar Live, Exeter, Devon 2004 - "On The Wall", Olympia, London
2002 - Hands On Touring Art, Burton Art Gallery, Torre Abbey & Torquay Museum, Bideford & Torquay, Devon
2001 - JAA, Candid Gallery, London
2000 - "The Interface Between Art, Science & Technology", New Greenham Arts, Newbury, Berkshire
2000 - Visual Arts Festival, Torre Abbey, Devon
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