Philippa Beale

Beale had her first solo exhibition at the Camden Arts Centre in 1972.^[4] In 1978, she exhibited Collected from Here, a series of sculptures and photographs about her mother's orchard at the Angela Flowers Gallery in London.^[5] Soon after, she exhibited thousands of real apples at the Richard Demarco Gallery in Edinburgh. Since the 1970s, Philippa has exhibited work at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, the Arnolfini in Bristol, the Fruit Market in Edinburgh, the Royal Academy of Arts and many major galleries. Beale joined The London Group of artists in 1977 and served as its president from 1994 to 1998.^[6] In 2009, Beale moved to France and made a permanent installation at the Church of the Virgin in Vaux, Valence en Poitou.^[7][8][9] In 2009, Beale started painting trees as part of her new polemic concerning the environment, resulting in an invitation to exhibit in 2013 in Under the Greenwood, Picturing the British Tree, at St Barbe Museum in the New Forest.^[10][11] In 2012, Philippa Beale was featured in the exhibition Beyond Corrupted Eye: Akumulatory 2 Gallery, 1972–1990 at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw.^[12] In 2014, she was a founder member of the Arborealists Movement, a collective of artists focused on tree imagery and ecological themes.^[13][14] In 2022, Philippa Beale curated the exhibition Gibraltar Our Sacred Earth, Our Sense of Place at Bermondsey Project Space in London, presenting works by nine Gibraltarian artists and exploring their relationship to their homeland.^[15]

In November 2024, Beale contributed an essay to the Arborealists’ third publication launched at the Forests, Woods and Groves exhibition at B.T. Batsford Gallery, London, which showcased the collective’s tree-themed artworks.^[16]

From October 2024 to August 2025, Beale took part in the exhibition The Quietness of Feeling: An Exploration of Trees through the Art of Benjamin Haughton and The Arborealists at Portsmouth Museum & Art Gallery.^[17]

Beale taught at the Hornsey College of Art and was the artist-in-residence at the City Art Gallery in Southampton during 1983.^[3] She was a senior lecturer, then principal lecturer, and director of studies at the London College of Communication, Central Saint Martins, and finally as a Ph.D. supervisor at City, University of London.^[3]

• 2024 In the Footsteps of the East London Group, The Nunnery Gallery, London.^[18]
• 2023–24 Regeneration, Hansard Mews, London (co-curator with Day Bowman).^[19]
• 2022 Society of Graphic Fine Art Members’ Show, Bermondsey Project Space, London (curated/contributor)^[20]

• 2021 Being With Trees, Curator, Gustavo Bacarisis Gallery, Gibraltar.^[21]
• 2021 Being With Trees, Curator, Bermondsey Project Space, London.
• 2020 The Arborealists, The Castle Museum, Taunton, South West Heritage Centre.^[22]
• 2019 The Art Of Trees: The Arborealists, Musee de St Croix, Loudun, France.
• 2017 The Art of the Tree, Dortoir des Moines, Musee de St Benoit, Poitiers, France.
• 2017 The Art of the Tree, Bermondsey Project Space, UK.
• 2013 ‘Under the Greenwood, Picturing the British Tree’, St Barbe Art Gallery and Museum, Southampton Museum Service, Lymington.^[23]
• 2007 Blue Bird and Other Stories, 30 years of Conceptual Art Practice by Philippa Beale, collaborating with Jane Humphrey, Graham Diprose, Christopher Plato London College of Communication Galleries, London.
• 2002 Art and the Spirit, The Stations of the Cross, Site Specific Installation, St Pancras Church, London.
• 2000 Real Bodies Virtual City, Curator with James Swinson, Outside Edge Artists Collective, London.
• 1995 The London Group, Curator The Curve, Barbican Arts Centre, President of the London Group.
• 1985 Critics Choice 2, by Guy Brett, Unquiet Studios, AIR Gallery. London.
• 1984 Artists for Bandaid at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
• 1972 The Highgate Series, The Nostalgia Industry, Camden Arts Centre, London.
• 1971 Art Spectrum London, Alexandra Palace, London, UK.^[24]

• 2023 An Absence, The Margate Gallery School, Margate.^[25]
• 2020 Imagining Trees Bermondsey Project Space, London.
• 2018 Trees, Chelsea Arts Club, London.
• 2007 Retrospective 30 years of Conceptual Art Practice, LCC Galleries, London.
• 2003 St Sebastian, Chelsea Arts Club, London.
• 2001 Visions, Key London Ltd., Wimpole Street, London.
• 1998 From Wilson to Callaghan, video viewing ICA, London.
• 1997 From Wilson to Callaghan, Posterstudio, London.
• 1992 Return to the Future, Exhibition with Neville Boden at the London Institute.

• 1990 Billboards, Dortioir sde Moines, Musse de Saint Benoit near Poitiers, France.
• 1985 Critics Choice 2, by Guy Brett Unquiet Studios, AIR Gallery. London.
• 1984 Blue Bird, Southampton City Art Gallery – about the exploration of children in the media.
• 1982 Baby Love Angela Flowers Gallery, London.
• 1981 His Ears are Small and Neat, His Chest is Covered with Soft Brown Hair, two multi-lingual artworks examining advertising. Akumulatory 2 Galleria, Poznan, Poland.
• 1978 Newtons Wonder, an installation of 100’s 1bs of apples raising environmental questions – Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh.
• 1977 Collected from There, evidence collected from an Orchard, Angela Flowers Gallery, London.
  Collected from Here, evidence of reclamation, of the Acme Gallery site, Acme Gallery, London.
• 1973 Highgate Series, the Nostalgia Industry, Park Square Gallery, Leeds.
• 1972 Highgate Series, The Nostalgia Industry, Camden Arts Centre, London.

• Beale, Philippa. Forests, Woods and Groves: Art from the Arborealists. Batsford, 2024.ISBN 9781849949781
• Beale, Philippa (essayist). The Arborealists: The Art of the Tree. Sansom & Co / Plato-Beale Productions, 2016. ISBN 978-1-908326-86-7
• The Quietness of Feeling: An Exploration of Trees through the Art of Benjamin Haughton and The Arborealists. Portsmouth Museum & Art Gallery, 2024 (catalogue).^[16]