Hannah Battershell's work is driven by a fascination for materials and a desire to enchant, to conjure worlds. It takes many forms: intricately layered paper landscapes; diorama-like scenes in tobacco tins; dreamy visions depicted in screenprints or cyanotypes. The abiding mood is one of playful darkness and eerie beauty. Sometimes miniature, always detailed, her work asks you to peer into its world up close. Looking at these pieces is intimate, personal, like reading a book.
Hannah’s current pieces are informed by a passion for gardening, wild food and our complex relationship with the natural world. Her artistic inspirations include the delicate depiction of natural forms in Japanese screens, the enchanting, humorous worlds conjured by Tove Jansson, the strange perspectives of Medieval illuminations and the symbolically charged and sumptuously coloured work of the Mughal miniaturists.
Selected Exhibition History
2022 The Cube Microplex, Jarman’s 80th Birthday Celebration.
My stop motion 'Dungeness Sea Kale' screened as part of celebration of the life and work of Derek Jarman.
2022 The Storytelling Choir – selected to work on a project, ‘Rewilding Cinderella’ creating animations that will feature alongside performances of lesser known Cinderella tales.
2021-2022 Featured in The Winter Show, THROWN Gallery, London.
2021 PROJECT/FORWARD:2048
My stop motion 'Guardian of the Ground' screened as part of a two-day global projection art festival curated by Microgalleries.
2021 Featured in Possible Futures - A Thousand Invisible Cords, Wyn Works, Walthamstow, London. Part of the E17 Art Trail.
2021 SIRENS, Centrespace Gallery, Bristol. with Becky Hoghton and Chloe Edwards.
2021 Februllage - An online prompt-based collage-a-day challenge. Money raised for Mind, Blueprint For All, Women’s Aid and Trussell Trust. @februllage
2020 Featured in The Winter Show, THROWN Gallery, London.
2020 An ongoing participant in #artistsupportpledge, a scheme in which artists sell work in order to buy other artists’ work. During this period funds were also raised for Mind, Women's Aid, The Trussell Trust and Creative Access.
2019 Featured in Winter Open Studios, Walden, Walthamstow, London.
2019 Edinburgh Art Fair - Work shown at the THROWN gallery stand.
2019 Exhibitor at The Other Art Fair, Kings Cross. Work also selected for the CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) Art Collective stand.
2019 Exhibitor at Handmade Oxford, Waterperry Gardens
2019 Analogue Mountain, group exhibition at Walden Studios, Walthamstow, London Borough of Culture 2019.
2018 Winter Show, group exhibition at THROWN, Highgate, London
2018 Exhibitor at The Other Art Fair, Victoria House, London
2018 Featured in In a Country Far, Far Away, travelling group exhibition at the Art Pavilion in Mile End Park, London and The German Fairytale Museum, Bad Oeynhausen, Germany.
2018 Windows, GX Gallery, London, group exhibition.
2017 Remembrance for Lost Species, group exhibition at ONCA, Brighton.
2017 Participant in the Soapbox Science scheme - producing an artwork, collaboration and public demonstration with Dr Patricia Brekke of ZSL.
2017 Spotlight by GX, Searcy’s, The Gherkin
2016 Solo Show, The Oneironaut, Curwen Gallery, Fitzrovia, London
2016 The Button Show, group exhibition curated by Souleo, Rush Arts Gallery, New York, USA
2015 Featured in Hide and Seek, Fringe Arts Bath
2015 The Other Art Fair- The Arnolfini, Bristol
2015 Solo show, Here gallery, Bristol
2015 Selected for the National Open Art Competition exhibition - The RCA, Kensington, London.
2014 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
2014 Solo show, The Drunken Librarian and Other Lost Stories, The Rectory Gallery, Spitalfields, London.
2013 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
2013 SELCS Cafe Culture opening event: What are Fairy Tales? part of the UCL Festival of the Arts Programme.
2012 Group Show at Walden Studios, Walthamstow, part of the E17 Art Trail
2012 Group Show, Lost Worlds, The Framers’ Gallery, Fitzrovia, London
2012 Selected for Images 36, Association of Illustrators Best of British Illustration, publication and exhibition, Somerset House.
2011 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
2011 Selected for the National Open Art Competition exhibition
2009 Group Show, The End, Ada Street Gallery, Hackney, London
Education
2005-2006 University College London, MA English Literature - Issues in Modern Culture
2001-2004 University College London, BA (First Class Hons) English Literature
ITOL-Approved certificate in Editorial and Proofreading from the London School of Publishing
City & Guilds, Level 1 and Level 2 – Practical Horticultural Skills
Professional Bodies and Memberships
The Association of Illustrators (AOI), Royal West of England Academy Artists Network, a-n The Artists Information Company