Sally Hewett "Bella"

“I graduated from Kent Institute of Art and Design, Canterbury, with a BA in Fine Art in 2003. 

My work has been exhibited in shows including Exhibition of Shortlisted Artists for the 2023 John Ruskin Prize, London; Royal Society of Sculptors Summer Show, London; Let them Eat Fake, curated by Bad Art, London;  Turner Contemporary Open, Margate; The Nude, group exhibition, Store Punkt Gallery, Munich; Unravelled, Untitled Space, New York; Emerging to Established, group exhibition, Krause Gallery, New York; Elogé de la Curiosité, group exhibition, Galerie Henri Chartier, Lyon; Microcosm, group exhibition at New Eden Gallery, San Francisco; Femme, Spoke Art/Juxtapoz Projects, New York; Delight and Disgust, Institute of Making, UCL, London; Sensitive Content, Unit Gallery, London; By the skin of your Teeth, Scarlet Seven Gallery, New York; NSFW, Spoke Art Gallery, San Francisco; Stitch Fetish SF, San Francisco; She Loves, HNYPT Gallery, Los Angeles; In Absentia, Turin; Reforming Anatomy Conference, Royal Society of Medicine, London; SHE, The Ugly Duck, London. My work has been featured in printed magazines including, Vogue Portugal, Magazine des Beaux-Arts, Elle Japan, Huffington Post, and Cosmopolitan and in books including: Hey! publication;
De Fil en aiguille by Charlotte Vannier, published by Pyramyd and Thames and Hudson; L’Art du Fil, by Marie-Madeleine Masse, published by AlternAtives.

“Bella (dermatillomania)This piece is based on a photograph that a brave and generous woman sent to me. I’m interested in how bodies show their history and how particular occasions leave their marks - the body as a documentary. During its lifetime the body replaces almost all its cells multiple times but in doing so it doesn’t obliterate its history - scars, etc. remain. The body’s history remains intact.

Pixeltits This piece was a response to the mindless censorship rules on social media sites such as Instagram. Algorithms remove any post showing female nipples - and that assumes the algorithm recognizes a female nipple when it sees one that it doesn’t. After a number of my posts showing embroidered nipples were taken down I decided to save them the trouble and pixelate the nipples in advance.” - Sally Hewett

Learn more about her artwork and exhibitions on our website.