Helen Sear’s practice focuses on the co-existence of human, animal, and natural environments and is rooted in an interest in Magic Realism, Surrealism and Conceptual Art.

She studied Fine Art at Reading University and University College London, Slade School, her practice coming to prominence in the late 1980s, when she worked primarily with mixed-media installation, performance and video.  Her photographic works became widely known in the 1991 British Council exhibition, De-Composition: Constructed Photography in Britain, which toured extensively in Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Photography remains a central subject and medium in her work, which often challenges the dominance of the eye and the fixed-point perspective associated with the camera lens, and explores the potential of the artwork to activate and elicit feeling.

Sear was the first woman to represent Wales with a solo exhibition at the 56th Venice Biennale 2015 presenting a suite of new works…the rest is smoke. Her most ambitious video work to date, wahaha biota has been shown in the UK, Netherlands and Switzerland in 2018 /2019. Two major works were acquired by the Hyman Collection in 2020 , and the UK Government Art Collection in 2022. Era of Solitude, work made in Durham North Carolina was published by Dewi Lewis in 2021. She currently lives and works in France and the UK.

She was elected a Royal Academician in 2024.

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