Bethan Huws facts for kids

Bethan Huws (born in 1961) is a talented artist from Wales. She creates art using many different things, like videos, words, and even spaces themselves! Her work often explores ideas about where we come from, who we are, and how things can be understood in different ways. People have said her art is like "gentle, quiet changes to buildings and rooms."

Life and Career

Her Early Life and Studies

Bethan Huws was born in Bangor, Wales, in 1961. Her first language is Welsh, and English is her second language. She studied art at Middlesex Polytechnic from 1981 to 1985. Then, she went to the Royal College of Art in London from 1986 to 1988. For her final show there, Bethan showed an empty art studio. She had carefully cleaned the entire wooden floor, inch by inch!

Exhibitions and Moving to Paris

Bethan's first big solo art show was in 1989 in Cologne, Germany. She also had important shows at places like the Anthony Reynolds Gallery in 1988 and Riverside Studios in 1989. She even showed her art at the famous Venice Biennale in 2003. In 1991, Bethan moved to Paris, France.

Singing for the Sea

In 1993, Bethan Huws made a special film called Singing for the Sea. For this film, eight women from Bulgaria sang and danced on a beach. They wore traditional Bulgarian clothes. This happened on the North Sea coast in Northumberland, England. The performance took place over three evenings, with people watching live. The film, which is 12 minutes long, was later shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp, Belgium.

Awards and Living in Berlin

Bethan has won several awards for her art. In 1998, she received the Adolf-Luther-Trust Art Award. She also won the Ludwig Gies-Award in 2004 for her small sculptures. In 2006, she received the B.A.C.A. Europe award from the Bonnefantenmuseum in the Netherlands. From 2007 to 2008, she was a special artist-in-residence in Berlin, Germany. Bethan Huws has lived in Berlin since 2010.

Artistic Style

Changing Spaces with Art

Bethan Huws' art is all about looking at spaces in new ways. She uses different materials like words, objects, and even empty rooms to make you think differently. Her art makes you look closely and think about what you see. It often has messages that everyone can understand, no matter what language they speak.

Influences and Themes

Bethan is inspired by other artists, especially Marcel Duchamp. Like him, she sometimes uses everyday objects in her art in a funny or surprising way. For example, one of her works is called 'Piss off I'm a Fountain'. She also gets ideas from the clever work of René Magritte.

A big part of Bethan's art is about who we are. She often thinks about her own life as a Welsh artist. Many of her landscape artworks are based on memories of farming scenes in North Wales. Since she was young, Bethan has made tiny boats from reeds. These boats are very special to her because they remind her of Wales. She often includes them in her creative artworks.