Leah Clements is an artist from and based in London whose practice spans film, photography, performance, writing, installation, and other media. Her work is concerned with the relationship between psychological, emotional, and physical states, often through personal accounts of unusual or hard-to-articulate experiences. Her practice also focuses on sickness/cripness/disability in art, in critical and practical ways.
Upcoming is a solo exhibition at Peer, London in 2024, and artwork commissioned by Bethlem for a new hospital in London, in Spring 2023.
Previous solo commissions and exhibitions include: ‘INSOMNIA’, solo exhibition, South Kiosk, London (2022-23), ‘The Siren of the Deep’ solo exhibition, Eastside Projects, Birmingham (2021), ‘Hyperbaric’, original performance commissioned for the ‘Hyper Functional, Ultra Healthy’ programme Somerset House Studios, with a second iteration commissioned by Rupert at the Artists’ Association Gallery, Vilnius (both 2020), ‘we felt the presence of someone else’, performance, Jupiter Woods, London (2016), We’ve Felt Our Stomach Drop At The Nicest Of Times, public artwork commission, Turf, Croydon (2016), ‘Beside’, performance, Chisenhale Gallery, and ‘you promised me poems’ solo exhibition, Vitrine, London (both 2015).
Other commissions and exhibitions include: ‘Moving Towards Disability Inclusivity’, Somerset House, London (2023), London Short Film Festival (2023), Rolling in the Deep: Mer-Creatures and Mythology in Global Cinema, Barbican, London (2022), Circa x Dazed Class of 2022, screening at Piccadilly Circus, London, K-Pop Square, Seoul, Fed Square, Melbourne, Limes Kurfürstendamm, Berlin, ‘The Way In’ group exhibition, Haus N Athen, Athens (2021-22), ‘Oceanic Feelings’, group exhibition, Electro Studios Project Space, St Leonards (2021), ‘Other Rooms’, group exhibition, Rupert, Vilnius (2020) ‘Diagnosis’, online commission, Chisenhale Gallery (2020), ‘A sort of ‘no’ feeling’, La Casa Encendida, Madrid (2020), ‘ON EDGE: Living in an Age of Anxiety’, Science Gallery London (2019), ‘Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary Exhibition’, Baltic39, Newcastle (2019), ‘On Allyship’, ICA, London (2019) ‘Beyond the Perfect Image’, Wellcome Collection, London (2019), ‘Still Here’, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (2019). ‘I never promised you a rose garden’ Matèria, Palermo (2018), ‘On Cripping’ ICA, London (2018), ‘Skin of the Eye Act II’, Vermilion Sands, Copenhagen (2018).
Residencies and awards include: Artist in Residence at Serpentine Galleries (2020-21), Solo Artist Residency, Wysing Arts Centre (2021), Artist Residency, Rupert, Vilnius (2018), Group Artist Residency, Wysing Arts Centre (2018), HereNow Art+Technology Residency, Space, London (2017), Arts Council England grant awarded for INSOMNIA (2022), Arts Council England Develop Your Creative Practice grant (2019-ongoing), Arts Council England grant awarded for Disability Research Project (2018), and Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary, (shortlisted), (2019).
In March 2019 Leah launched Access Docs for Artists: an online resource made in
collaboration with Lizzy Rose and Alice Hattrick to help disabled artists create and use
access documents, for which the three were listed on ArtNet’s 2020 ‘New Innovators’ list as ‘Disruption Artists’, alongside other artists such as Tyler Mitchell, and musicians such as Solange.
Clements’ work has been written about in journals such as Frieze, ArtMonthly, The British Journal of Photography, Art Forum, Art Papers, Bijutsu Techo, Dazed, Elephant, and Wall Street International.