About Amanda Lebus
Photo by Ingeborg Meulendijks
"I am an artist working across different art forms, both alone and with other artists.
Drawing is at the centre of my work. I also use print, paint, papercut, puppetry, performance and clay… My working process is receptive and musical, a form of dancing with what arises. I collaborate with circumstances and merge my skills and artist’s sensibility with the immediacy of my embodied experience of the world. Many years of drawing practice have given me the joyful discipline of drawing what I see rather than what I assume." Amanda Lebus |
CV
Education
1995-1997 City Literary Institute, London/ London Metropolitan University
Diploma HE Fine and Applied Art, Ceramics
1984-1988 Heriot-Watt University/Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh
BA (Hons) Painting
1983-1984 Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology, Cambridge
Foundation Course in Art and Design
Solo Exhibitions
2022 Beasts, Fools and Olive Groves, Linton Art Gallery and Studio, Cambs.
2003 Drawing Breath, Welfare State International, Cumbria
2002 Ancestral Picnic, Welfare State International, Cumbria
2002 Ancestral Picnic, The Vortex Gallery, London
2001 Ancestral Picnic,The Barn Gallery, Carshalton, Surrey
2001 Glove, The Octagon Gallery, Norwich Puppet Theatre (puppets)
2000 Wind Songs, The Fire Exit Gallery, London
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Oaks and Beeches: All Saint’s Church, Carshalton
Conversation Piece: Amanda Lebus & Emily Johns at Torriano Meeting House, London
Summer Exhibition: The Gallery at Green and Stone, London
Works on Paper Exhibition: The Gallery at Green and Stone, London
REMARKABLE Pastel Society 125th Exhibition: Mall Galleries, London
2023
Intimations: Islington Arts Factory, London
Open Studio exhibition at The Pavilion Studio, Grantchester
2022 Women Celebrating Surrealism: The Centenary ,Islington Arts Factory, London
2020 Natural at Queens Wood Café Gallery, London
Touching Nature, Touched by Nature at Lauderdale House Gallery, London
2013 Swarthmoor Hall, Ulverston, Cumbria
2006 London Art Therapy Centre
Truman Brewery, London
2006 New Hall College, Cambridge
2005 Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey, Northumberland
2005 Hereford Cathedral
2003-2005 Lanternhouse, Cumbria
Mid Pennine Arts/Heritage Trust for the North West,
Pendle Heritage Centre
MAC Touring
1998-99 Various exhibitions, Hornsey Library Art Gallery, London
1997 National Theatre, London
1997 Museum of Oxford
1997 Elms Lesters Painting Rooms, London
1995-97 Various exhibitions,Torriano Meeting House, London
Theatre
1993-00 Founded Laughing Root Theatre of Puppets and Images. Toured in front of audiences of ten to 500 in locations ranging from the ruins of Reading Abbey to arts centres and newly planted community apple orchards.
1988 Trained, made puppets and performed in La Boite a Joujoux with Amy Luckenbach’s Theatre of Puppetry, Italy
1983-84 Trained as stage manager and performed in Pal Joey with Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven, USA
1983 Devised and directed Becket’s Fin de Partie for International Festival of Theatre, France
Artist Residencies
2019-20 Fortismere Community Choir and London Oriana Choir artist in residence
2004-06 Barnet College, London AA2A funded residency in Ceramics and Film
2002-04 Welfare State International, Cumbria
2001 Welfare State International / Mid Pennine Arts, Lancashire
2000 Tower of London, London, Puppetry residency and schools workshops
2000 National Trust, Dover, development of personal and public art work for exhibition and leading workshops
1998-06 Welfare State International, Cumbria, Member of the Artist’s Forum and artists collective collaborating on many shows
1998 South Bedfordshire District Council, South Bedfordshire, teaching in schools and colleges, running public workshop, public festival and exhibiting
1996-97
Godolphin Road Community Garden Association, London
Artist in residence at two local schools and the creation of garden arches, bench and time capsule.
Battersea Arts Centre/The Puppet Centre, London
1989 European Festival for Youth and the Arts, Gdynia, Poland and Plymouth, UK
1987-05 Series of short artists’ residencies in London, West of England and East Anglian schools.
Commissions
2024
Design for private garden hand railing forged by Henrich Zelinka, Cambridge
Designs for three new entrance arches for Godolphin Road Community Garden, Hammersmith Community Gardens Association
2019 Design for private garden hand railing forged by Henrich Zelinka, Cambridge
2007 South Bank Centre, London, Installation for Rites of Passage workshop/ International Workshop Festival by Sue Gill and John Fox
2005 The Barbican Centre, London, Shadow puppetry rendition of the Odyssey for Can I Have a Word? schools project
2004 Royal Festival Hall, London "The Enchanted Room" collaborative installation.
2002 Courtauld Institute, London, Puppet theatre and puppets to animate Lucas Cranach’s “The Creation”
2000 National Trust, Dover, Four paintings and an artists’ book for the Gateway Building, Dover
1998-01 Victoria and Albert Museum, London, A series of illustrations and line drawings
1998 Royal Horticultural Society, Wisley, Artists’ book for the Wisley library: “The Dandelion Clock”
1997 Godolphin Road Community Garden Association, London, Sculpted garden gates and time capsule bench.
1995 Institute for Contemporary Arts (ICA), London, Sculpted paper set for a performance of “I Place my Stones”
1988 Peter Watkins, international, Series of 14 posters for Watkin’s 14 hour peace film “The Journey”
Workshops in Museums, Galleries and Schools
A selection includes:
1993-08
Barbican
Fitzwilliam Museum
Wallace Collection
Courtauld Institute
Victoria and Albert Museum
Natural History Museum
Museum of Oxford
National Maritime Museum
Science Museum
Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum
1987-93
Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
Company of Imagination, Cumbria and Norfolk
Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston
1989-91
Schools and community centres in
Kenya - Zimbabwe - Mozambique - Ecuador - Cuba
Rites of Passage work
2002-2012
Creatively marking moments of significance in people’s lives
Collections
Tate Britain Library, Royal Horticultural Society Library, the National Trust, the Victoria and Albert Museum education department, the Womens’ Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, The University of Edinburgh Art Collection and Stephen Perse Foundation, Cambridge. My work is also in private collections in the U.K., Italy, France and the U.S.
Publications
2022 Proud Little Cloud – illustrations for a book by James Low. Publisher: Simply Being
2007 Gattesca - Publisher: Il Labirinto (Italy)
1999 Dead Good Guides – Time Capsules, Publisher: Engineers of the Imagination
1988 and 1989 Arsenale - Publisher: Il Labirinto (Italy)
Education
1995-1997 City Literary Institute, London/ London Metropolitan University
Diploma HE Fine and Applied Art, Ceramics
1984-1988 Heriot-Watt University/Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh
BA (Hons) Painting
1983-1984 Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology, Cambridge
Foundation Course in Art and Design
Solo Exhibitions
2022 Beasts, Fools and Olive Groves, Linton Art Gallery and Studio, Cambs.
2003 Drawing Breath, Welfare State International, Cumbria
2002 Ancestral Picnic, Welfare State International, Cumbria
2002 Ancestral Picnic, The Vortex Gallery, London
2001 Ancestral Picnic,The Barn Gallery, Carshalton, Surrey
2001 Glove, The Octagon Gallery, Norwich Puppet Theatre (puppets)
2000 Wind Songs, The Fire Exit Gallery, London
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Oaks and Beeches: All Saint’s Church, Carshalton
Conversation Piece: Amanda Lebus & Emily Johns at Torriano Meeting House, London
Summer Exhibition: The Gallery at Green and Stone, London
Works on Paper Exhibition: The Gallery at Green and Stone, London
REMARKABLE Pastel Society 125th Exhibition: Mall Galleries, London
2023
Intimations: Islington Arts Factory, London
Open Studio exhibition at The Pavilion Studio, Grantchester
2022 Women Celebrating Surrealism: The Centenary ,Islington Arts Factory, London
2020 Natural at Queens Wood Café Gallery, London
Touching Nature, Touched by Nature at Lauderdale House Gallery, London
2013 Swarthmoor Hall, Ulverston, Cumbria
2006 London Art Therapy Centre
Truman Brewery, London
2006 New Hall College, Cambridge
2005 Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey, Northumberland
2005 Hereford Cathedral
2003-2005 Lanternhouse, Cumbria
Mid Pennine Arts/Heritage Trust for the North West,
Pendle Heritage Centre
MAC Touring
1998-99 Various exhibitions, Hornsey Library Art Gallery, London
1997 National Theatre, London
1997 Museum of Oxford
1997 Elms Lesters Painting Rooms, London
1995-97 Various exhibitions,Torriano Meeting House, London
Theatre
1993-00 Founded Laughing Root Theatre of Puppets and Images. Toured in front of audiences of ten to 500 in locations ranging from the ruins of Reading Abbey to arts centres and newly planted community apple orchards.
1988 Trained, made puppets and performed in La Boite a Joujoux with Amy Luckenbach’s Theatre of Puppetry, Italy
1983-84 Trained as stage manager and performed in Pal Joey with Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven, USA
1983 Devised and directed Becket’s Fin de Partie for International Festival of Theatre, France
Artist Residencies
2019-20 Fortismere Community Choir and London Oriana Choir artist in residence
2004-06 Barnet College, London AA2A funded residency in Ceramics and Film
2002-04 Welfare State International, Cumbria
2001 Welfare State International / Mid Pennine Arts, Lancashire
2000 Tower of London, London, Puppetry residency and schools workshops
2000 National Trust, Dover, development of personal and public art work for exhibition and leading workshops
1998-06 Welfare State International, Cumbria, Member of the Artist’s Forum and artists collective collaborating on many shows
1998 South Bedfordshire District Council, South Bedfordshire, teaching in schools and colleges, running public workshop, public festival and exhibiting
1996-97
Godolphin Road Community Garden Association, London
Artist in residence at two local schools and the creation of garden arches, bench and time capsule.
Battersea Arts Centre/The Puppet Centre, London
1989 European Festival for Youth and the Arts, Gdynia, Poland and Plymouth, UK
1987-05 Series of short artists’ residencies in London, West of England and East Anglian schools.
Commissions
2024
Design for private garden hand railing forged by Henrich Zelinka, Cambridge
Designs for three new entrance arches for Godolphin Road Community Garden, Hammersmith Community Gardens Association
2019 Design for private garden hand railing forged by Henrich Zelinka, Cambridge
2007 South Bank Centre, London, Installation for Rites of Passage workshop/ International Workshop Festival by Sue Gill and John Fox
2005 The Barbican Centre, London, Shadow puppetry rendition of the Odyssey for Can I Have a Word? schools project
2004 Royal Festival Hall, London "The Enchanted Room" collaborative installation.
2002 Courtauld Institute, London, Puppet theatre and puppets to animate Lucas Cranach’s “The Creation”
2000 National Trust, Dover, Four paintings and an artists’ book for the Gateway Building, Dover
1998-01 Victoria and Albert Museum, London, A series of illustrations and line drawings
1998 Royal Horticultural Society, Wisley, Artists’ book for the Wisley library: “The Dandelion Clock”
1997 Godolphin Road Community Garden Association, London, Sculpted garden gates and time capsule bench.
1995 Institute for Contemporary Arts (ICA), London, Sculpted paper set for a performance of “I Place my Stones”
1988 Peter Watkins, international, Series of 14 posters for Watkin’s 14 hour peace film “The Journey”
Workshops in Museums, Galleries and Schools
A selection includes:
1993-08
Barbican
Fitzwilliam Museum
Wallace Collection
Courtauld Institute
Victoria and Albert Museum
Natural History Museum
Museum of Oxford
National Maritime Museum
Science Museum
Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum
1987-93
Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
Company of Imagination, Cumbria and Norfolk
Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston
1989-91
Schools and community centres in
Kenya - Zimbabwe - Mozambique - Ecuador - Cuba
Rites of Passage work
2002-2012
Creatively marking moments of significance in people’s lives
Collections
Tate Britain Library, Royal Horticultural Society Library, the National Trust, the Victoria and Albert Museum education department, the Womens’ Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, The University of Edinburgh Art Collection and Stephen Perse Foundation, Cambridge. My work is also in private collections in the U.K., Italy, France and the U.S.
Publications
2022 Proud Little Cloud – illustrations for a book by James Low. Publisher: Simply Being
2007 Gattesca - Publisher: Il Labirinto (Italy)
1999 Dead Good Guides – Time Capsules, Publisher: Engineers of the Imagination
1988 and 1989 Arsenale - Publisher: Il Labirinto (Italy)