Rosie Leventon

Rosie Leventon is a British visual artist whose practice encompasses sculpture, installation, land art, drawing and painting. She is known for making sculptural installations that reference current issues as well as the natural environment, prehistoric archaeology and vernacular architecture.

Work and career

Leventon studied Chinese Language & Archaeology from 1974 to 1975 at London University, before completing her bachelor's degree in Fine Art from Croydon College of Art (1976–1979), followed by a postgraduate degree in Advanced Sculpture at Central St Martins School of Art 1980–81.

A recurring theme running through her artistic practice is that of things that have been lost, hidden, or forgotten.

Leventon was commissioned by Stour Valley Arts to make two large earthworks, which are situated in Kings Wood in Stour Valley, Kent, and form part of the Stour Valley Sculpture Trail alongside other artworks. Both pieces were shortlisted for the Rouse Kent Award for Public Art, and Ring was the winner. Made in 2004, it is a concave circular piece dug out of the land itself, inspired by Anglo-Saxon barrow fields and prehistoric earthworks found in the local area in Kent. Usually filled with water, it also acts as a water source for deer in the forest. Leventon's second work in Kings Wood made in 2004 is B52; she chose this aircraft because it was the time of the Iraq war and as such it is a powerful symbol. Her idea was to subvert the destructive and aggressive power of the aircraft into a living growing piece – it consists of a clearing in the monoculture of coppiced sweet chestnut trees cut into the negative shape of the American bomber. The form of this artwork responds to local prehistoric archaeology. Taking on the theme of time the work consists of a large corkscrew spiral structure which visitors can interact with by walking along the spiral path into the concave centre, which is surrounded by a ring of Oaks and Wild Service trees and a further ring of bushes selected to be of particular value to birds.

Responding to a commission from the Dorset-based arts organisation b-side in 2018 Leventon produced an installation Endangered Dust for the courtyard of the Portland Museum. Part of an ongoing series influenced by vernacular architecture, the form of Endangered Dust was inspired by prehistoric stone chambers cut into the rock in the Isle of Portland known as Beehive Chambers. Leventon's work was constructed from layers of hand cut plywood taking the conical beehive forms as its starting point, lit from the inside. Her piece Absentee is a ghostly re-creation of the ship made from hundreds of pieces of glass. If Not Now, When? Generations of Women in Sculpture in Britain 1960–2023, Saatchi Gallery, London, 15 November 2023 to 22 January 2024 In Harmony, Broomhill Sculpture Gardens, Barnstaple, 10 June 2022 to May 2024 Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer, Bucks, open until 29 July 2023 If Not Now, When? Generations of Women Sculptors in Britain, 1960 – 2022, The Hepworth Wakefield, West Yorkshire, 31 March - 24 September 2023 Royal Society of Sculptors, Thirsk Hall Sculpture Garden, North Yorkshire, 3 May – 8 July 2024 Royal Academy Summer exhibition Summer Exhibition, Royal Society of Sculptors, London, 2020 Endangered Dust, Felix & Spear Gallery, London, 2020 Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize. Orchard Place London and touring - 2022-23, 2019, 2000, 2024-25 BLANK_, University Centre Leeds, Ripple of Light solo exhibition - 2021 Traces of Traces, Art at Broadgate, London, 2017 Wells Art Contemporary, Wells cathedral.Composition 2. 2019 Lichfield Festival of Visual Art Exhibition. Lichfield Cathedral. 2019 Endangered Dust 2019( b-side Commission), Portland Museum, Isle of Portland, Dorset, 2018 Atrium Gallery Exchange House, Broadgate Centre, Liverpool St Station London. 2-person show. Angus-Hughes Gallery, London, 2017 Centenary Open Exhibition 2013, The London Group. The Cello Factory, London, 2013 Unfold, Nettie Horn, London, 2009 Undercurrent, Fabrica, Brighton, 2004 Excavating the Present, Kettles Yard Gallery, Cambridge, 1991 Wake, Chisenhale Gallery, London, 1988 Forensic Evidence, Serpentine Gallery, London, 1987

International exhibitions include:

X-RAY. X-ray Vision in Art, Science, Film, Fashion and Architecture, UNESCO World Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte, Germany, 9 November 2025 to 9 September 2026 Catalogue: X-RAY The Power of Roentgen Vision 2026 Weltkulturerbe Volklinger Hutte. Sandstein Kultur. . Pages: 15, 399, and 436 Chapter 16 Under All is the Land, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, 12 April to 10 May 2025 Up the Duff, Galleria L’Affiche, Milan and La Fortezza del Girifalco, Cortona, Italy, 2017 (touring show with Leandro Lottici) Arte Laguna Prize, Venice, 2016 Brandts Klaedefabrik, Odense, Denmark 1991 Prague Festival of Contemporary Art. Czech Republic.2011 Convergence Arts Festival, Rhode Island USA.2003 Views (of the Museum), Museo d’Arte Contemporani Barcelona, Spain,1996 Centraline Museum, Lodz Poland. Der Pfalzgalerie, KaisersLautern, Germany 1990

Awards include 2021: Royal Society of Sculptors Spotlight Award.

2020: Felix & Spear Award.

Arts Council award via The Woodland Trust, 2012-2013, for Now & Then, a large earthwork sited at the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Woods at Normanton le Heath In Leicestershire.

Rouse Kent Award for Public Art.

Elephant Trust.

British Council.

Mark Tanner Award for Sculpture.

Henry Moore Sculpture Trust.

UJADF ( UK / Japan Art Design & Film ) Winner. Installation