We spoke with Venice Fellow Lisa Risbec @lisarisbec about her upcoming residency supporting the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
From returning to university as a mature student to preparing for a month immersed in art, Lisa shares what inspired her to apply, her excitement about experiencing Lubaina Himid’s exhibition, and what she’s most looking forward to when she arrives in Venice.
Lisa will be in Venice from mid-September to mid-October, spending a month engaging deeply with the exhibitions, meeting fellow cohort members, and living in a city filled with art.
Read more about Lisa’s journey and what she’s anticipating from her time as a Venice Fellow here:
/blog/announcing-our-2026-venice-biennale-fellow-lisa-risbec
#BritishPavilion #BritishCouncil #VeniceFellowshipsProgramme #VeniceFellowships #PredictingHistoryTestingTranslation
🗣️ Announcing our 2026 Venice Biennale Fellow, Lisa Risbec @lisarisbec
We are pleased to announce that Lisa Risbec has been selected as our 2026 Venice Biennale Fellow!
Axis is working with the British Council and funding this Fellowship to support an Axis member to spend a month in Venice during the Biennale. Lisa Risbec is a visual artist based in West Yorkshire. Her work brings together sound, text, moving image and found objects to explore memory, archives and personal histories. Alongside her practice, she works as an Imaging Assistant at the John Rylands Library and has experience as a photographer, facilitator, mentor, curator and researcher.
During her Fellowship, Lisa will be based in Venice from mid-September to mid-October, working alongside a cohort of fellows at the British Pavilion, where Lubaina Himid will represent the UK.
Lisa will share her experience with Axis members throughout her time in Venice, with reflections in the Community and a publication and writing to follow.
This Fellowship is part of our commitment to put resources directly into artists and their work, and to widen access to opportunities for our members.
👉 See more here, or click the link in our bio:
/blog/announcing-our-2026-venice-biennale-fellow-lisa-risbec
#BritishPavilion #BritishCouncil #VeniceFellowshipsProgramme #VeniceFellowships
#PredictingHistoryTestingTranslation
Remembering Right Now
Curated by Charlotte Grayland @cgraylandart
This month we invited artist and curator Charlotte Grayland to make a selection of Axis members’ work from the Axis Gallery. Featuring artworks by: Lisa Risbec @lisarisbec , Amy J. Wilson @amy_j_wilson , Asuf Ishaq @asuf_ishaq , Sally Waterman @watermansally , Ngo Chun Tse @phoenixchunzz , and Claire Barber.
"In this curatorial selection, I wanted to highlight artists in their varying approaches to capturing memories, exploring both personal and lived experiences, to more cultural and universally shared instances."
👉 We will be taking a deeper dive into the artists and their work throughout the week, or you can explore 'Remembering Right Now' now, in the Axis Community, or on our website here: /blog/remembering-right-now
The Single Egg (everything is broken)
It's been a great little project to get me back into making after a stressful time. And reminded me how much I love constructing books. When displayed it acts like a sculptural object, but it is also pleasingly wobbly when concertina-ing back down to fit in its envelope and tied safely back up.
So happy to see it in amazing company with so many other works!
Thanks to @aliyah.a.hussain and @egg.todmorden for putting on an ace exhibition!
Ps. There's also a bonus 'easter egg' to discover too...
Been working on a new artists' book for the Best Eggs exhibition (all to be revealed !) and it reminded me about this book I made a while ago which for some reason I never shared on here! For the @folklore_tapes and @museum_of_witchcraft_and_magic exhibition The Art of Magic.
It's a Turkish map fold, one of my favourites to make, I really love the act of unveiling what's inside and how sculptural it is.
This was based on a good luck charm collection item that was lost. (See last picture for the index card)
The Art of Magic exhibition and performance was based on missing artefacts once found in the archive of the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic. Thirty contemporary artists imaginatively re-scored and re-stored these mysteriously lost magical charms, tools and spells through video, installation, sculpture and sound.
Finally managed (10 months later) to tidy up the bags of stuff in my studio that I'd dumped there after my last exhibition 😬 that must be some kind of record!
Anyway, I found my hands (!) and some other bits from the last studio set up and had a play around!
I still need to sort my storage out and actually get some work in there.
But it's a start.
Some of this season's treasure.
1. A painted Branscombe beach horizon on a shell I found, a stone with unusual markings, ceramic pot from a local sale (can't remember the maker!)
2. A ferret/stoat/otter from my Grandparents house, painting from my Grandma's (think it's Australia) excellent wonky candlestick from @aliyah.a.hussain and a little photo of my Nanny (Grandad is on there too).
3. A decorative spoon from Nicks mum and a grid and pottery fragment I found on the newly revealed bed of Agden reservoir.
4. Triangle shaped rock and smooth burgundy rock from Dorset, tiny magical candles from @human_nature_dorset , crochet doiley from my Grandma's.
5. Frog Pond Plop 'facimile' made by my excellent colleague whilst working on a 3D animated version, pressed rose that reminds me of my Nanny, candlestick holder of various shells and bits found on walks including two shells that look like ears and a broken bit of a calderdale walk sign, a lovely card from our next door neighbours daughter to cheer us up.
6. A pinecone found in Exmouth (I think) in a wonderful bowl by @newtohn
Everything is fragmented at the moment. So here is a selection of fragmented moments.
I've also been thinking/reading/learning about;
*Incidental archives
*How we can prefer the act of being seen to know something over actually taking the time to know it
*Care in all of its forms
*Circularity
*Bodies and their various functions
*Being less careful
*Being more care-full
(Sculpture by Emily Young - lost mountain head, man unknown snacker)
Life events at the moment have left me thinking a lot about stuff, things we keep and why and what to do with it all. I've also been looking, sorting and selecting images of work I've made for opportunities. It's tricky when it's all about fragments and moments coming together to show snippets of a work, it almost feels like just sharing a single chapter of a book.
These are some object details from The Organised Body. Found fabrics, archival tape, ceramic and fabric objects, pebbles. Things reused, reworked and arranged.
Thinking about gesture. Rest.
Movement, my hand. Gathering, arranging, tying, placing, mending.
‘Gesture was a countermeasure to any deadness of form’ Foreword Anne Boyer pg xx Gestures Alice butler, Nell Osborne, Hillary white
Testing out some new ideas.
The sounds of Ones to Watch 2025 🔈Here are some of the audio visual pieces in our annual exhibition of emerging artists in order of appearance;
Angelika Kaccouris
‘Observe’ is a compilation of videos which were all taken from the same day during a walk in 2024. This piece is 2 Minutes, 58 Seconds and takes place in Meanwood Valley, Leeds.
Sue Green
‘16 Hours’ is a tribute to the hidden labour of women in the textiles industry, celebrating woollen mill workers with strong familial connections. When researching archives of mill history, she discovered punishing work schedules.16 hours per day was standard practice. The installation is 32-yards of stitched cotton rag paper and a nod to migrant workers underpinning the labour force and keeping the industry afloat.
Alegria Repila Smith
Using objects scavenged from around Leeds, Alegria transforms them into a series of quasi- musical instruments which illustrate the power of music and dance to transport people to and from the Underworld.
Lisa Risbec
The installation ‘The Weight of it All’, shares a retelling of a personal grief ritual; inviting the audience to listen, sit and reflect. The blanket is embroidered with an incantation or poem, quilted and then filled with pebbles collected from the beach a year earlier after a bereavement.
Tomorrow (Sunday 27th April) is your final day to see and experience this work! The Gallery is open 12pm - 4pm. FREE ENTRY.
