{"id":21262,"date":"2025-08-14T21:04:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T20:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/affordableartfair.com\/inspiration\/meet-the-artist-beth-shapeero\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T15:58:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T14:58:16","slug":"meet-the-artist-beth-shapeero","status":"publish","type":"inspiration","link":"https:\/\/affordableartfair.com\/inspiration\/meet-the-artist-beth-shapeero\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the artist: Beth Shapeero"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We’re thrilled to introduce Beth Shapeero as our programme artist for Affordable Art Fair Battersea Autumn<\/a>, 15 – 19 October 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based in Glasgow, Beth works across a diverse range of mediums, from canvas paintings to bold silkscreen monotype triptychs and dramatic floor-to-ceiling installations. Each artwork invites connection and creates moments of wonder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Join us as we dive into her inspiring practice. From a love affair with pink to her powerful community workshops supporting young people’s mental health, Beth’s approach to abstract art is refreshingly honest and deeply human. Discover what drives this brilliant artist, her unconventional use of everyday materials, and why she thinks everyone should trust their gut when buying art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beth Shapeero, programme artist for Affordable Art Fair Battersea Autumn, 15 – 19 October 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Beth Shapeero, Photograph by Harrison Reid, 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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We’re so excited to have you as our programme artist! Can you tell us more about your practice and what inspires you? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Thank you! I like my practice to be a bit wild. I’m trying to get at what’s below the surface\u2014not to make something too polite, but to get under my own skin and see what’s going on there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have to loosen up to make the work, to find a space where I’m making freely without feeling too constrained or self-conscious. To do that, I try and make lots of work quickly and let go of whether it’s any good or not, then just see what comes out. If I can get really free and loose, I can surprise myself. It’s like I’m not in control, and without my brain controlling everything, something more direct can emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beth Shapeero, Scribbling Scrabbling, <\/em>Two-Step (Beth Shapeero and Fraser Taylor) at Platform, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Sometimes it’s hard to put my finger on what inspires me because it can be so broad, but right now it seems to be stories and images. Books are so powerful at connecting to raw emotion and shooting you into someone else’s deep, weird world and thoughts. Sometimes I find myself completely connecting to a fictional person’s emotions and vulnerability. I’m processing images or emotional spaces\u2014often from books as I work\u2014sometimes seeing an image in my head of, for instance, a woman in an intense space and painting the forms of it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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“I like stripping things down to their most minimal, most essential forms.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Beth Shapeero<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Your works investigate abstraction, considering surface, depth and the subconscious – what draws you to abstract expression? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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I like stripping things down to their most minimal, most essential forms. Life is so layered and complex, but what about just the wind, or the feeling of gravity? It’s perhaps an antithesis to the overwhelm of life and a way to find a scatty mind. I’m drawn to that in music and film too\u2014when it’s the most pared back, it can be the most powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beth Shapeero, Fingers Triptych, 2025, silkscreen monotype<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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You’re known for unconventional presentation methods – can you talk about your innovative use of everyday materials? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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I find it hard to throw things away. I don’t like contributing to landfill, and I feel like every object has potential and can be something useful or special. Even old scrappy bits of used paper can house the most beautiful drawings. I keep everything and want to make it into something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beth Shapeero, Empower Women for Change, 2023, To Stand in the Full Sun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Beth Shapeero, Leeds City College 2021, The Shape of Things<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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“I think everyone has a personal palette – the colours we are drawn to, dress in, pick for our homes. I can\u2019t get away from my love of pink”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beth Shapeero<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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What role does colour play in your work, and how do you develop personal palettes? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I think everyone has a personal palette – the colours we are drawn to, dress in, pick for our homes. I can\u2019t get away from my love of pink, which exposes my girliness, and honestly, I feel a bit conflicted about it. But I’m also drawn to inky blacks and blues and soft, gentle colours. My tastes change and I gain more colours as I go. I like this mad acid yellowy-green that I started using with my artist friend and collaborator, Fraser Taylor. It looks great with pink!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Beth Shapeero, The Score, 2025, mixed paint on canvas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Beth Shapeero, Photograph by Jessica Holdengarde, 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Have you always been an artist? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I decided being an artist was what I wanted to do when I was fifteen and witnessed all the adults around me being generally unhappy in their jobs. I didn\u2019t realise it\u2019d be quite this hard \u2013 but I do love it. I’ve had to have other jobs my whole life to support my practice up until the last few years. I’ve worked for many years in restaurants, bars and cinemas; all places that I still adore.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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“Making art can be a solitary practice, as can much of life, and it can be a beautiful way to connect with people.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beth Shapeero<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Your work often involves people and strives to promote connection – why is community engagement central to your practice? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Making art can be a solitary practice, as can much of life, and it can be a beautiful way to connect with people. I adore teaching. It comes naturally, and people love making art – even those who are a bit scared of it at first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s just joyful sharing practice with people and helping to develop their confidence in making, which is so inherent to all of us, but a lot of people lose it. Sometimes people respond so delightedly to really straightforward art processes that it makes me well up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A post shared by Beth Shapeero (@beth_shapeero)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n