Rowena Harris (they/them) is a queer, disabled artist, researcher and educator based in London. Research-led, their work emerges through moving image, workshops and collective discussion. They are invested in how crip, queer and feminist knowledges can inform methods for art practice. Through their work, they aim to expand knowledge and possibilities for crip art praxis with a disability justice framework – which is to challenge ableism as it is entangled with colonial capitalism, racism, cis-heteropatriarchy and the ecology, and to seek sustainable practices. They run the Long-Covid Reading Group.
They are in the final stages of their CHASE (AHRC) funded, practice-based PhD at Goldsmiths College where their thesis is entitled ‘Crip Autotheory.’ They hold an MFA also from Goldsmiths (2010), a BA Fine Art from Falmouth University (2008). Recent awards and residencies include the Elan Valley – MAC award (UK); DYCP Arts Council England; SPACE residency (UK); Rupert Residency (LT); Sainsbury’s scholarship The British School at Rome (IT). Recent solo projects include, Phoinix (SK); Las Palmas (PT); The Gallery Apart, (IT); Object A; Coleman Projects (UK). Screenings and group projects: Goldsmiths CCA(UK); RestFest Festival (international); Ormston House (IR); MAC (UK); Trafó House, (HU); Culturegest, Fidelidade Art Porto (PT); MAC, Copperfield Gallery, Space In Between, Tenderpixel, The Bluecoat, Bloc Projects, Flat Time House, The White Cube, The Barbican, Karst (UK), Agnes Varis Centre, (NY, USA); Fondazione Memmo, Artissima, Spazio in Situ, Galleria D’Arte Contemporanea O.Licini, (IT). The run the Long-Covid Reading Group.
CV
Education
2017 – 2025 PhD AHRC funded, Art Dept, Goldsmith’s College, London, UK
2008 – 2010 MFA Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, London, UK
2005 – 2008 BA (hons) Fine Art, University College Falmouth, UK
Awards / residencies
2023 Residency, Elan Valley – MAC Birmingham, UK
2021 Residency, SPACE, London
DYCP Arts Council England
2020 Residency, Rupert, LT
2018 Shortlisted for Tenderflix moving image prize
2017 CHASE research funding, practice-based PhD
2014–2015 Sainsbury’s Scholarship, (1yr residency) British School at Rome, IT
2013 Atelier Salzamt Residency, Linz, AT
2010 New Contemporaries
Solo exhibitions / Public Work
2023 Long-Covid and the Culture of Disbelief, Phoinix, Bratislava, SK
A Crip Body of Water (public audio trail), sited at Elan Valley, UK
2018 Thinking-Feeling, Feeling-Thinking, Las Palmas Project, Lisbon, PT
2017 Soft Boundaries, The Gallery Apart, Rome, IT
2015 The Third Hand Prosthesis, Object A, Manchester, UK
Being both on and within, as I said, The Gallery Apart, Rome, IT
2013 P.A.R.T.S, Coleman Project Space, London, UK
2011 Believing in Things, Van Horbourg Gallery, Basel, CH
Sculptures. Schwartz Gallery Project Space, London, UK
Reading groups / Workshops / Lectures / Screenings / Artist Talks
2025 (screening), Goldsmiths CCA, London, UK.
2024 Selected for RestFest Film Festival, online, International
2023 Artist Talk, Disability Arts, Cymru, UK
Screening & Artist Talk, MAC, Birmingham, UK
2022 (reading session) The hangover reading club, on long-covid, Trafó, Budapest, HU
(reading group series) The Long-Covid Reading Group, SPACE, London, UK
2020 (reading session) When the sick rule the post-covid world, Rupert, LT
(workshop) rotating worlds by 90 degrees, thinking horizontal futures, Rupert, LT
2019 (artist talk) New York University, US (visiting London, UK)
2016 (screening), Saarländische Galerie, Berlin, DE
2013 (artist talk) Emily Carr University, CA (visiting London, UK)
Selected group exhibitions
2024 Get Well Soon (prologue), Ormston House, Limerick, IR
2023 Watershed, MAC, Birmingham, UK
2022 Broken Screen, Spazio in Situ, Rome, IT
2021 Dimore (Dwelling), The Gallery Apart, Rome, IT
Apophenia, curated by Las Palmas, Fidelidade Art Porto, PT
2020 Apophenia, curated by Las Palmas, Culturegest Lisbon, PT
2019 Collezione Valentini, Galleria D’Arte Contemporanea, Osvaldo Licini, IT
Emergence, film screening program, Lewisham Art House, London, UK
Some people believe the sun used to be yellow, Trafó, Budapest, HU
2018 Tenderflix, screening at The BFI, London, UK
Soft House, ANGL collective, London, UK
On Reflections, Agnes Varis Centre, New York, UK
Dreamworks, curated by IKO, Limbo, Margate, UK
British Summer Time (BST), Copperfield, London, UK
2017 Super Human Corporation, Space In Between – Online Project, London, UK
Tropical Hangover, Tenderpixel, London, UK
Public View, The Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK
2016 A Symptom of Objects, Supercollider, Blackpool, UK
Say What? ASC Gallery, London, UK
Left Hand to Back of Head, The Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK
2015 The Place of the Scene, Bloc Projects, Sheffield
Artissima, with The Gallery Apart, Turin, IT
Mostra, The British School at Rome, IT
Conversation Piece, Part 1, Fondazione Memmo, Rome, IT
Artist Screenings, KARST, Plymouth, UK
2014 Image Object, Artuner.com (online) C(h)roma, Indiranagar, Bangalore, IN
Digitalsmigital, Tenderbooks, London, UK
Chronoviser: Archive, South Kiosk, London, UK
Synchronise. Accelerate. Disperse. II, MJ Gallery, Geneva, CH
2013 The Starseed Transmission, Enclave Projects, London, UK
Believing (in) Objects, 134 Middleton Road, London, UK
Hack the Barbican, The Barbican, London, UK
Systems Failure, The Contemporary, London, UK
The Open Cube, The White Cube, London, UK
Up the Trees, Vanhorbourg Gallery, Zurich, CH
MC Live, Enclave Projects, London, UK & Vanhorbourg Gallery, Zurich, CH
2012 MC Launch, X Marks the Bokship, London, UK
Cold Compress, Drei Gallery, Cologne, DE
Fustration. 4 Minits / Flat Time House, London, UK
Today the Collection is, Bethnal Green Library, London, UK
Punctuating (duo show with Vera Kox), La Scatola Gallery, London, UK
No More Icons, Rod Barton Gallery, London, UK
Syndicate 1, Food Face projects, London, UK
2011 Powerless Structures, Schwartz Gallery, London, UK
P 9, Null and Void, London, UK
I Pity Inanimate Objects, Goldstein Galleries, London, UK
In Search of Alchemic Times, (site specific curated by Cecilia Wee), London, UK
Know How, Campbell Works, London, UK
SAGS. The Woodmill, London, UK
Site of Flesh and Stone, Çağdaş Galeri, Istanbul, TR
On The Brink, SW1 Gallery, London, UK
2010 New Contemporaries, The ICA & The A Foundation, London & Liverpool, UK
To Look is to Labour, Laden Fuer Nichts, Leipzig, Germany
Say What, What Way, Shop@34, London, UK
Pause and Eject, Shoreditch Town Hall & Rag Factory, London, UK
2009 Off Modern, Corsica Studios, London, UK
Teaching
2024 – 2024 Visiting Lecturer, BA Fine Art workshop series, Kingston University
2023 – 2023 Lecturer, BA Fine Art, De Montfort University
2020 – 2021 Critical Studies Tutor, MFA Fine Art, Goldsmiths College
2017 – 2019 Critical Studies Tutor, BA Fine Art, Goldsmiths College
2015 – 2020 Visiting Lecturer, BA Fine Art, Art University Bournemouth
2018 Visiting Lecturer / respondent, Central St Martin’s
2013 – 2017 Visiting Lecturer, BA Photography, University of Hertfordshire
2013 MFA respondent, Camberwell College of Art
Projects / Publications
2018 On Field Review, (Article), published by Limbo, London, UK
2016 Misery Connoisseur Magazine (MC) – founder & editor (curatorial project/artist group)
2015 Being both on and within, artist book published by The Gallery Apart, Rome, IT
2014 Tenderbooks – initial founding manager (venue for artist publications, research & events)
2013 Misery Connoisseur Issue 1 & 2, London, UK (editor)