BIOGRAPHY
June Nelson is a contemporary artist living in Lewes, East Sussex, whose work focuses on drawing and painting, often shaped by personal narrative, social observation., and history. She is particularly interested in female agency and bearing witness to silenced lives. Raised in industrial South Wales, she brings a grounded, reflective sensibility to her practice.
After studying English at the University of Reading, Nelson had a career in academic and educational publishing. Alongside this, she developed her artistic voice, taking classes at Glasgow School of Art and later through the 369 Gallery and studio complex in Edinburgh. A move to the South of England , with a young family, led to her formal training in Fine Art (Painting) at the University of Brighton. She is currently part of the Turps Offsite Programme, an intensive artist-led mentoring programme that supports critical engagement and development within a peer-led context.
Nelson is a studio member at Phoenix Artspace in Brighton and also works at Towner Eastbourne, engaging with the wider arts community. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including her installation Cabinet of Imagined Mirrors at the Liverpool Biennial Independents 2006. She has twice been shortlisted for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, with her smoke drawings.
In 2025, she presented a solo show at Phoenix Artspace, Brighton (Diving Queens: Portraits of Resilience), and had two works from the series selected for ithe exhibition 100/50 (Who’s counting?) at Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop, London.
STATEMENT
My work is grounded in observation, memory, and the emotional weight of experience. The hidden lives of women are central to my practice. I like to tell stories of resilience, loss, and hidden histories—whether through intimate family moments or allegorical figures. There’s a strong awareness of process, time, and the relationship between maker, material, and viewer.
I have worked across various disciplines, incorporating drawing, installation, and moving image, as well as experimental materials such as smoke, beeswax, and plaster. This sense of materiality continues to underpin my current painting practice, where a balance of strength and fragility with tactility remain important. Recent paintings bring together staged figures in ambiguous settings, with a compelling use of colour and surface. Often drawing on overlooked histories, mythic motifs, or my own archives. I make images that feel at once familiar and quietly uncanny: narrative without being illustrative; emotionally charged without being sentimental. I hope that a mix of poetry and playfulness enlivens the work and shows a wry, sometimes surreal humour,
Recently, I have drawn inspiration from Elizabethan and Flemish portraiture and deep-sea diving gear. These portraits of resilience blend tradition with the weird. Symbols of restriction and protection, such as the rigid ruff and isolating diving helmet, contrast with gestures of defiance and self-exploration. At the heart of the series are the inscrutable Diving Queens; companion pieces that merge the motif of deep-sea diving with royal portraiture, embodying the roles of artist, woman, and lone explorer, navigating inner worlds.
CV
Born 1957, Newport, South Wales. Lives and works in Brighton and Lewes, UK
EDUCATION
Turps Hastings Offsite Programme, 2024/26
Fine Art (Painting), BA Hons, University of Brighton, 2001
Modern Art & Modernism, Open University 1988
English, BA Hons, University of Reading, 1978
EXHIBITIONS
2025
100/50 (Who’s counting), Unit 1 Gallery Workshop, London, 20 June–19th July
‘Diving Queens: Portraits of Resilience (solo show), Phoenix Artspace, Brighton,
5th–27th April
Turps Hastings 2025 Exhibition, Rye Creative Centre, Rye
2024
Paperworks (group show), Newhaven Project Space,
Newhaven Open, BN1 Marine Workshops,Newhaven
Regenerate, Blue Monkey Network group show, Volt, Eastbourne
2023
Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, UK tour 2023–24
Gallery 207, Lewes, two-person show with Nadine Feinson
2022
Hastings Open, Hastings Museum and Galler,y East Sussex
2021
NU Artists, group exhibition, South St, Lewes
2020
ING Discerning Eye , London (selected by Jo Baring)
2019
‘Technique’, Devonshire Collective, Eastbourne
2018
Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize , UK tour 2018–19
Martyrs Gallery, Summer Salon, Lewes,
2010
East Sussex Open, Towner, Eastbourne
2006
Liverpool Biennial Independents, ‘Near Distance’ – Maze Studio show, Arena Gallery, Liverpool
2004
‘Voyager’, with Brighton’s Maze Studio Group, Abbéville, France, Anglo-French Cultural exchange Sussex & Picardie
‘Voyager II: Lost Highway’, Phoenix Gallery, Brighton, Anglo-French Cultural exchange Sussex & Picardie
‘Present’, group show of alternative printmaking, CBAT, Cardiff
2003
‘Tools for Recognition’ (4 person show) Phoenix Gallery, Brighton
‘Watch this Space’, post-residency show, Phoenix Gallery, Brighton
RESIDENCIES
Create Space Wales, Ceredigion, 2021
AA2A Scheme, Kingston University Fine Art Department, 2010–11
‘Watch this Space’ – inaugural residency at Phoenix Gallery, Brighton, 2003
AWARDS & GRANTS
AccessArt ACE-funded '40 Artist Educators', 2014
Arts Council SE funding for building ‘ Cabinet of Imagined Mirrors, Watch this Space Residency, Phoenix, Brighton, 2003
Arts Council SE funding to MAZE studio group for 'Voyager', a collaboration with artists from Picardy, France, 2004