Eva Joy London, United Kingdom
Eva is a multidisciplinary artivist whose ideas circulate around protest, connection, apocalyptic possibilities, climate change and utopia. She often takes an anarchic view to traditional spaces for art and prefers using public interventions and community collaborations to spark energy for change.
Eva Joy is a multidisciplinary "artivist" whose work explores themes of protest, connection, apocalyptic possibilities, and the climate crisis. A graduate of Manchester School of Art and The University of Barcelona with a BA in Fine Art and Art History, Joy currently resides in London. Her urban upbringing informs her artistic practice, with the grit and absurdity of city life frequently captured in her works. Since her first major post-graduate exhibition with Kensington & Chelsea Art Week in 2020, Joy has exhibited around the UK and internationally in Denmark, Germany, Italy, India, the US, Mexico and Spain. She often challenges traditional art spaces, preferring to use public interventions and community collaborations to ignite social change. This methodology is exemplified in her recent residency with IDENSITAT in Alicante which united many facets of the community to focus on an endangered species and our collective changing human relationship with our oceans. Her passion for public art with social commentary is also evident in her solo interview with 'Unmuted' for Sky Arts which first aired in 2021. Currently working as a Workshop Leader and Street Art Tour Guide in East London, she daily enthuses new people about art in public space and encourages them to join this mischievous movement. Joy regularly incorporates recycled materials and found objects into her art, an act of community cleaning that simultaneously subverts the elitism of the art world. Her practice balances humour and horror, recognising humour as a valuable tool for engaging with complex and overwhelming issues such as the climate crisis and colonial capitalism.
Links: 'SILENCED ~ REACTIVATED' residency with Idensitat in Alicante, Spain. https://www.idensitat.net/en/current-projects/transversal-aesthetics-2/id-cmcv/silenced-reactivated/1792-open-studio-shell-talk-3 https://www.beonloop.com/shell-talk-arte-ecologia-y-accion-comunitaria/
Sky Arts Interview for 'Unmuted' Season 2 Episode 5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7YAYIXut-c&t=7s&ab_channel=LicklemorProductions
Artwork
Shell Talk (La Concha Que Habla), Sound Sculpture / Public Intervention, 2023
All this Wanting, graphite and acrylic on wood, 2022, 40x42cm
Hate is Incompatible , oil and collage on watercolour paper, 2021
Pandemic Spring, Mixed media on canvas, 2020
Venting in Ryebank, Film, 2020
A Curious Electricity Pylon, mixed media on scrap metal frame, 2020
Se Despiertan (They Awaken), bronze, 2019, as a pair £2,750, prints also available
Medusas (Jellyfish), recycled plastic, metal and thread, 2019, individually on request
Outside There Were Flowers, Installation: sterling board flowers, children's drawings, sound., 2018
Bleach, Rise , spray paint and acrylic on board, 2018
Concrete Dutch Landscapes, Paper collage and acrylic on board, 2017
I Wish I Could Laugh, nitrous oxide canisters, tape, glaze, acrylic, 2020
It's a Sign (The Beginning, The Flood, War, Utopia), mixed media on concrete/plastic panels on wooden post, 2017
Turbines by a River, Lino print and mixed media, 2017
MIRAN (They Watch), ink drawings onto original photographs, 2019
Suburb Life, collage, oil and acrylic on scrap board, 2017
And So We Dig, thread, oil on paint rag, 2018
Scraps, mixed media on canvas, 2017, on request
JOY, Paste-Ups, spray paint, ceramic, work on canvas/ scrap materials., Ongoing
Radical Hope, Digital Collage, 2021
OJOS, Placards: mole and mixed media on canvas, wood, ribbon, acryclic., 2022
Pinche Pemex, Mole Salsa, acrylic and crayon on board., 2022
Meera Dagra, Public Intervention / Sculpture, 2025
Meera Gaon, Spray Paint / Spray Paint on Wood, 2025
JOY X BALANCE, Spray Paint, 2025
Projects and exhibitions
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SILENCED ~ REACTIVATED an Idensitat exhibition14/09/2024 — 02/11/2024 SILENCED~REACTIVATED united artistic projects which took place in Alicante, Valencia, and Benicarló, within the Transversal Aesthetics residencies programme, conceived by Idensitat in collaboration with the Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana. Projects including 'Shell Talk' by Eva Joy & Sally Maclachlan. The exhibition includes... [Read more] |
Centro Cultural Las Cigarreras, Alicante, Spain | Details |
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The PATHs Artivist Awards Biennale03/09/2024 — 03/11/2024 The “PATHs” exhibition at Palazzo Pisani Revedin, curated by Peter Hopkins with co-curation by Diana Hohenthal und Bergen, offers visitors a vibrant artistic experience featuring installations, videos, photographs, paintings, and performances. Artists from around the world present works that delve into the complexities of identity in a... [Read more] |
Palazzo Pisani Revedin, Venice | Details |
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Yard Show17/08/2024 A fundraising pop-up arts event curated by Earthlings for The Refugee Community Kitchen with a exhibiting artists, independent stalls and DJs. |
Unit 3 Gallery, London | Details |
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Shell Talk, Residency with Idensitat and the Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana10/12/2023 — 15/12/2023 Activating community connections and public spaces with collaborations and workshops to culminate in a parade of talking Pinna Nobilis audio sculptures. These shells amplified the stories collected over the course of the residency through internal speakers made from recycled materials. The Nacra, or Pinna Nobilis, is a Mediterranean inhabitant... [Read more] |
El Centro Cultural Las Cigarreras, Alicante | Details |
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The Exquisite Corpse15/06/2023 — 21/07/2023 With SHIM Art Network and Amy Jackson, photographs of my bronze cast virus forms 'Se Despiertan' were exhibited as part of The Exquisite Corpse collating environmental-artworks. The concept of the Exquisite Corpse allows artists from all over the world to achieve representation in exhibitions without the need for expensive and unsustainable... [Read more] |
Bla Bla Projektraum Germany & World of MOCO USA, Berlin & Bridgeport | Details |
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The Absurd26/08/2021 — 30/08/2021 Curated by FUBAR Collective, The Absurd featured the work of forty artists responding to the theme. Set in the amazing space of London’s Crypt Gallery, visitors were invited to wander around the 200-year-old crypt & immerse themselves in visual, interactive & performance art. I displayed five works; my Venting in Ryebank short film, large A... [Read more] |
The Crypt Gallery, London | Details |
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The Postcard Project14/08/2021 — 15/08/2021 At the beginning of November 2020, and the start of the UK’s second national lockdown, ARTISTS RESPONDING TO ... sent 200 postcards across the UK to 200 artists. These artists were invited to reflect on the year 2020 and create artwork directly onto the postcards. The artistic responses in the project range from paintings, drawings, lino... [Read more] |
147 Stoke Newington Highstreet, London | Details |
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Unmuted Sky Arts04/08/2021 — ongoing I was featured on Licklemore Production's 'Unmuted' to discuss my work and how art can engage in protest and environmental discourse. Series 2 Episode 5. |
Sky TV, Televised | Details |
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Photopocene Podcast27/06/2021 — ongoing https://anchor.fm/photopocene/episodes/Photopocene-with-Eva-Lawrence---Episode-10-e13egp7 |
Online, Online | Details |
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Inner-City: Out of Place VR Exhibition24/04/2021 — ongoing https://loisemmaharkin.wixsite.com/innercityoutofplace Inner-City: Out of Place was designed to challenge the possibilities of contemporary exhibition design and Post-Studio practice. With no physical site to attend, measure, design or curate, this exhibition takes a step towards representing and understanding a turn of abstraction in... [Read more] |
Online | Details |
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Little Voices, Kensington + Chelsea Art Week11/10/2020 A group exhibition curated by Amy Jackson as the closing event of Kensington and Chelsea Art Week consisting of both emerging and established artists addressing the topic: transforming society to solve the climate crisis and the greatest inequalities of our time. Little Voices comprised of sculpture, performance, spoken word and visual art... [Read more] |
Chelsea Telephone Exchange, London | Details |
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Black Lives Matter Protest07/06/2020 I set up this event with the help of BLM West London and Extinction Rebellion Richmond to provide an opportunity to protest for those who did not want to risk going into Parliament Square to join the bigger marches in town. I timed the silence, publicised the event and provided large banners to line this busy street. I believe this protest... [Read more] |
Kew Green, London | Details |
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Street Exhibition16/05/2020 As an alternative to the final show of my degree I decided to put on an exhibition along the brick walls and back fences of my small street, inviting local kids and artists to join me. The day brought a sense of community to streets around us and has inspired me to keep making more unconventional spaces for art. You can view the exhibition at:... [Read more] |
Hounslow, London | Details |
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Walled, Hulme Community Garden Centre29/02/2020 — 03/03/2020 A group exhibition organised by the Arts Society at Manchester School of Art, thematically exploring environmental concerns within an urban context. The works were displayed around this much loved community garden centre alongside workshops blending arts and permaculture practices. |
Hulme Community Garden Centre, Manchester | Details |
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All-Saints Takeover Protest14/02/2020 — 14/10/2020 I organised this protest event to raise awareness of the Save Ryebank Fields campaign among the student population as it is Manchester Metropolitan University who are selling off the land given to them by the council to be used as a student resource. The event coincided with a Climate Strike march into town and with Valentines Day hence the... [Read more] |
All Saints Square, Manchester | Details |
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30 Pieces of Bronze13/06/2019 — 15/06/2019 In this beautiful squatted art center in the hills of Barcelona myself and other artists from my metalwork class at The University of Barcelona Belles Artes put on an exhibition of our works in bronze alongside La Experimental’s weekend program of music and meditation events. |
La Experimental, Tibidabo, Barcelona | Details |