Abigail Reynolds

Abigail Reynolds is a British artist based in St Just, Cornwall.

Based in Cornwall, United Kingdom, Reynolds studied English Literature at St Catherine’s College Oxford University (1990–1994) before pursuing Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts (1997–2000) and then Goldsmiths University (2000–2002). According to the art journal Hi-Fructose, "Using the art of collage, she enhances the original picture by creating intricate assemblages out of repurposed vintage photographs, magazines, encyclopedias, atlases, and other materials she finds."

In 2016 Reynolds was awarded the BMW Art Journey prize at Art Basel. As the third artist to take a BMW Art Journey, Reynolds spent four months in late 2016 and early 2017 visiting fifteen locations along the ancient Silk Road, filming historic library sites in Italy, Egypt, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Iran and China. She used a Bolex camera and 16mm film. Reynolds’ book titled Lost Libraries detailing her journey, was published by Hatje Cantz in Nov 2017.

Additionally in 2016, Reynolds was awarded an Arts Council England Grant to produce her first film work ‘The Mother’s Bones’.From 2012-14, Reynolds was the inaugural artist-in-residence at Rambert Dance Company, London.

Reynolds has played an active role supporting the arts in Cornwall. She was a board member for Tate St Ives (2011-2017) and The Penzance Convention (2012). Reynolds has additionally taken part in a series of projects convened by Teresa Gleadowe from the Cornwall Workshops (2011–17) to the conventions (The Falmouth Convention (2010), The Penzance Convention (2012) and the succession of Cornwall Workshops held at Kestle Barton since 2011), culminating in Groundwork summer 2018. She was commissioned by Tate St Ives to create a work to mark the opening of TSI2 (October 2017). This was a live work titled We Beat The Bounds.

Reynolds has work in the Government Art Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New York Public Library and many private collections.

Having lived in Oxford and London, she moved to St Just in Penwith in 2004 with her partner Andy Harper and their two children. In 2014 she was offered one of the 19 studios in the iconic Porthmeor studios in St Ives, and continues to work there.

After lecturing for five years in contextual studies for the Fine Art program at Chelsea, Abigail taught in the sculpture department at the Ruskin school of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University from 2003-2010. This included curating a year-long interdisciplinary talks series titled ‘Doubt’ funded by the Gulbenkian Foundation.

Lost Libraries, at Art Basel Miami Beach; 8 / ∞, Rokeby Gallery, London; Box A: Accidents, Kestle Barton, Manaccan, Cornwall; A Common Treasury, at Ambach & Rice Los Angeles and The British Countryside in Pictures, Seventeen Gallery London.

Selected Group Exhibitions from the past few years include: The West China Biennial, First Edition, Yinchuan, China; After Photography, Alain Gutharc, Paris; Precarious Balance, CoCA, Christchurch, New Zealand; Select Cuts and Alterations, Foley Gallery, New York; Cities and Other Ruins, Sir John Soane’s Museum, London 2013; Riff /Rift Baltic 39, Newcastle UK; 'The Democracy of Objects, Nettie Horn, London UK; Rituals are Tellers of Us, Newlyn Art Gallery, UK 2012; Inshore Fishing: Peter Lanyon And Contemporary Artists, Rokeby Gallery, London; Dear Aby Warburg, what to do with images?, Museum fur Gegenwartskunst, Siegen, DE; The First Cut, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester: touring SeaCity Museum, Southampton, Djanogly Gallery, Lakeside Arts, Nottingham, UK and There was a Country where They were all Thieves, Jeanine Hofland Contemporary, Amsterdam, NL