Barbara Steveni: I Find Myself
OPENS AT VOID ARTS CENTRE, DERRY
24 January–4 April 2026
Preview: Saturday 17 January 2026 5.30–7.30pm
The life and work of Barbara Steveni (1928–2020), who described herself as an artist–activist, embodied an archive and pioneered a diffused art practice that resists clear definition. Invisible threads interlink the various roles she played in the contexts within which she was situated and responding to. As with other women artists of her generation she combined childrearing and managing domestic chores with the production of work, and was frequently overshadowed by her male partner’s success. The importance of Steveni’s role in the Artist Placement Group (APG) was often marginalised by gender-inflected terms such as ‘honorary secretary’, her practice was rarely recognised as having a value in its own right. The exhibition I Find Myself intends to redress this imbalance and encompass her life’s work, drawing together her practice and her experimentation with materials, media and strategies across a career spanning more than seventy years.
I Find Myself, co-curated by Jo Melvin and FTHo Curator/Director Gareth Bell-Jones was first presented at Modern Art Oxford in 2025.
With special thanks to Modern Art Oxford, Henry Moore Foundation, The John Latham Foundation, and The Ampersand Foundation, plus the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Derry City and Strabane Council, Ulster University, Foyle Foundation, Plus Tate and Northbound Breweries.
