Rachael Coward is an artist working across installation, printmaking and sculpture. Her interests lie in liminal spaces, heritage and place, creating monuments to her lived experience based on thresholds and markers found in rural Cornwall where she lives. She attempts to extract the essence of these unassuming features, re-imagine them and present them in new contexts.
Her works aim to exist in an uncomfortable grey area, that sit on the border between strength and fragility, present and absent, and that move between 2 and 3-dimensions.
“Place, and more specifically rurality is at the heart of my work. I use my practice to explore my sense of identity as a woman living and working in rural Cornwall. I am interested in the traces of human presence that are scattered across our landscapes. Often small and over-looked, they become part of our everyday lives and almost invisible as we adapt our ways of living around these structures. Among these traces are the use of found materials; stone, wood and earth, but there are also a lot of types of hardware; chains, fences, hinges, nuts and bolts. They are all meant to contain, to hold something in, to hold something back, to mark, to protect, or to claim. How we interact with where we live is constantly defined by these interventions.
“In my work I take something that is supposed to be hardwearing and subvert it, creating something delicate and breakable. The works imply tension and restraint across boundaries that have been created. I want to create something with the look of strength but in reality is much more delicate, only to be handled with great care. Much like nature, whilst it looks robust, it is only through a delicate balancing act that it is held in its current state of existence, and it must be cared for.
"Duality is also a key theme in my work, and I enjoy exploring the grey area that sits in, around and between opposing forces; full/empty, internal/external, presence/absence, analogue/digital."
Recent projects include ‘Something Lost, Something Found’; her first solo exhibition at Heseltine Gallery in Truro, ‘Speak/Easy’; a site-specific sculptural commission for Exeter Phoenix’s Gallery 333, and ‘The State We’re In’; a limited edition boxed set of artist books made in collaboration with 11 artists from Devon & Cornwall.
She is a former Co-Director of CAMP, a member-led network for the creative and visual arts community in Devon and Cornwall. She is also an art educator and facilitator, frequently working with young people and families. She has recently worked with Tate, The National Trust and Arts Well CIC. She currently lives and works in Cornwall.
UPCOMING
September - October 2025 - Something Lost / Something Found - The Heseltine Gallery, Truro, UK
September - October 2025 - Where Are We Now? - Themba Hulbert Gallery, Honiton, UK
October 2025 - January 2026 - Framed: Cornwall Open - Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery, Truro, UK
RESIDENCIES
September 2023 - Present - Truro School & The Heseltine Gallery - Truro, UK
May 2022 - Arts Culture Commune - Hayle, UK
March 2022 - The Cornwall Workshop - Helston, UK
September - November 2020 - CAMP Curator in Residence - Plymouth, UK
January 2019 - Back Lane West - Redruth, UK
February 2018 - Structures Residency at Newlyn Art Gallery - Newlyn, UK
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
July 2025 - Speak / Easy - Gallery 333, Exeter Phoenix, Exeter, UK
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
June-July 2025 - 'The State We're In' - Terre Verte Gallery, Altarnun, UK
August 2024 - In Talks With The Mine - Michell's Engine House, Redruth, UK
October 2023 - January 2024 - The Spirit of Cornwall - The Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro, UK
February - June 2023 - Cornish Maids - Newlyn Art Gallery, Newlyn, UK
April - May 2022 - 'The Co-Workers' - Part of Spike Island Open Studios 2022 - Bristol, UK
May 2022 - A New Folklore - Fish Factory - Penryn, UK
June 2019 - Island Exhibition - Enys House - Penryn, UK
February 2018 - Structures Residency at Newlyn Art Gallery - Newlyn, UK
May 2017 - Falmouth School of Art Degree Show - Woodlane Studios - Falmouth, UK
February 2017 - Art + Text - 44AD artspace - Bath, UK
September 2016 - Press Gang - Falmouth Art Gallery - Falmouth, UK
September 2016 - SWITCH - Porthmeor Studios - St. Ives, UK
June 2015 - Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition - Royal Academy of Arts - London, UK
PROJECTS
January 2024 - June 2025 - The State We're In, 2024 - Artist Book Project
March - June 2022 - CAMP on Tour - Various locations across Devon & Cornwall, UK
PERFORMANCES
June 2015 - The Drift - Tate St. Ives - St. Ives, UK
PUBLICATIONS
'Circuit: Test, Risk, Change'. Tate and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. 2019
'Family Think and Do Guide'. Newlyn and The Exchange Art Galleries. 2017
FEATURES
SWITCH zine - Tate Collective. 2016
Artist Profile - Seven Shades of Black Magazine. Edited by Megan Fatharly. 2016
G.o F.igure Review - Falmouth Art Zine (F.A.Z). Edited by Robert Ive. 2015
EDUCATION
2014 - 2017- BA (Hons) Fine Art, Falmouth University
View my university studio journal here
2013 - 2014 - UAL Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, Somerset College of Arts and Technology