Bea Campbell at her solo show, Threadbare, in Rome, 2023.

In response to our changing world, Bea’s practice explores the resourcefulness, adaptability, and ingenuity of the creator. Increasingly guided by an inquiry into sustainable materials and organic structures, her work reflects on the climate crisis and the paradox of being a maker in an era of excess.

Influenced by ecological thought and traditional knowledge systems, she approaches materials as collaborators rather than passive mediums. Her research and experiments push the limits of painting, embracing cycles of reuse and reinvention. From repurposed canvases and natural pigments to biodegradable sculptural forms, her works explore the coexistence and lifecycle of materials, questioning permanence and impermanence. Layers of paint and excavation create surfaces that echo natural textures and imprints, engaging in a dialogue between gesture, decay, structure, and entropy.

As she moves forward, Bea continues to challenge the sustainability of her practice, rationing conventional materials and expanding her approach to mark-making. Her work seeks to merge artistic expression with ecological consciousness, transforming the discarded into the vital and reimagining what painting can be. She believes art has the potential to foster new ways of living—resourceful, mindful, and symbiotic with the world around us.

Born in 1993 and raised in London, Bea graduated from Wimbledon College of Arts with a BA in Fine Art: Painting. She moved to Rome in October 2021 where she recently graduated with honours with an MA in Fine Art Painting, from Rome University of Fine Art. Alongside her artistic practice, Bea has worked extensively as a scenic painter and fabricator, working in film, theatre, television, fashion, retail and public art. Her thesis, entitled The Expanded Field of Painting in a World Full of Clutter, can be downloaded here.