Anna Best
Anna Best (born 1965, London) is a British artist whose work dates from the late 1980s to the present. After completing a BA (Hons) in Fine Art (First Class) in Coventry,[1] Best established a cooperative artists’ studio in London and undertook several artist residencies, including Sculpture Space in New York.
In the mid-1990s, she attended the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam,[2] where her tutors included Joan Jonas, Thom Puckey, and Judith Goddard. She subsequently held a solo exhibition, Texaco Love, at Casco Projects in Utrecht.[3]
Between 1991 and 1997, Best co-founded Shave International Artist's Workshop in Somerset, UK, in collaboration with Triangle Arts.[4]
On her return to London, Best exhibited in Summer Collection at the South London Gallery with A Real Pony Race for a Bridle (Burgess Park)[5] reviewed by Anna Harding,[6] and in Glean, curated by Naomi Siderfin at Beaconsfield with Visionhire (Lambeth Walk).[7][8] Best was commissioned by Iwona Blaswick at Tate Modern (The Wedding Project, Borough Market),[9][10] by The Photographer's Gallery (Occasional Sights),[11][12] Camden Arts Centre (Mecca),[13][14] and Grizedale Arts.[15]
This work and other pieces consisted of large scale collaborative events; Best has said she was interested in the complexity and provisional nature of these processes. Her work was created in public space, and offsite—highly specific to time, place, and audience. Julieta Gonzalez appraises some of this work in Visible - where art leaves its own field and becomes visible as part of something else, Sternberg Press 2010.[16] Alongside residencies, workshops, teaching, and projects abroad (Portugal, Croatia, Belgium, Poland, Venezuela, and Senegal), Best's practice at this time was primarily concerned with the Local: she worked with Danielle Arnaud, notably PHIL with the London Philharmonic orchestra,[17] reviewed in Mute.[18] She collaborated with composer Paul Whitty on Vauxhall Pleasure, including performances at Tate Britain and an exhibition at The Museum of Garden History.[19][20]
Best's film and video work includes: Buddleia commissioned by Plymouth Arts Centre, Devon, 2007, with an essay by Lucy Reynolds[21] and Plastic Water Stone, performance-screening at Almissa Festival, Croatia, 2019.[22]
More recently, in Dorset, Best has hosted artists at The Mothership[23] and developed her studio practice of drawing, sculpture, and writing, recently publishing Limestone Interruptions.[24] She is currently working with partner Nick Berkeley on collaborative project 56:65, which will be on show at Gallery46 in October 2025. Best's work is held in archives at Tate Modern, The Photographers Gallery, the Live Art Development Agency, The South London Gallery Collection, and Beaconsfield Gallery, where it is currently (July 2025) on show in London.
References
- ↑ "Panel Discussion: Lanchester Polytechnic Faculty of Art & Design 1980-1983". Facture. Retrieved 2025-06-21.
- ↑ "Anna Best, 1994". Rijksakademie. Retrieved 2025-06-21.
- ↑ "Texaco Love - Casco Art Institute". casco.art. 2022-04-14. Retrieved 2025-06-21.
- ↑ Triangle - Variety of experience around artists workshops and residencies.
Published by Triangle Arts Trust, UK 2007, ISBN 978-0-9545787-8-7 Search this book on
.
- ↑ "A Real Pony Race For A Bridle – Anna Best Archive". Retrieved 2025-06-21.
- ↑ Harding, Anna. "Participatory art and the gailery" (PDF). archive.annabest.info.
- ↑ Occupational Hazard: Critical Writing on Recent British Art, by Julian Stallabrass etc. Black Dog Publishing, 1998
- ↑ Chronic Epoch: 1995-2005, Beaconsfield Gallery by Margaret Garlake, Black Dog Publishing, 2015
- ↑ "Tate Gallery: With Bow Bells, Cockney costermongers and artists". www.theartnewspaper.com. 1998-09-30. Retrieved 2025-06-21.
- ↑ For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Emma Smith, Make - the magazine of womens art, No. 83
- ↑ a London guide book of missed opportunities and things that aren't always there. ISBN 978-0-907879-66-4 Search this book on .
- ↑ Art Monthly 2004, Issue 275, Stephen Bury, Occasional Sights could be seen to mimic physically an A_Z…
- ↑ "eyes-down". eyesdown.annabest.info. Retrieved 2025-06-21.
- ↑ "A Conversation with Anna Best". www.safebet.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2009-01-07. Retrieved 2025-06-21. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Festival of Lying - Art and Lying". www.grizedale.org. Archived from the original on 2012-03-10. Retrieved 2025-06-21. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Visible, Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto & Fondazione Zegna, Sternberg Press, USA, Germany 2010
- ↑ "PHIL by Anna Best". phil.annabest.info. Retrieved 2025-06-21.
- ↑ Szczelkun, Stefan (2002-11-28). "Phil". Mute. Retrieved 2025-06-21.
- ↑ "Parabola Trust". www.parabolatrust.org. Retrieved 2025-06-21.
- ↑ Open Space - Art in the Public Realm
in London 1995-2005.
Edited by Jemima Montagu, Arts Council England and Central London Partnership 2007, ISBN 978-0-7287-1324-6 Search this book on .
- ↑ Reynolds, Lucy. "Anna Best - Buddleia: Cinematic Disruptions of a City" (PDF). archive.annabest.info.
- ↑ Split, HULU; Šuran, Oleg (2019-07-23). "Programme 2019". Almissa. Retrieved 2025-06-21.
- ↑ "@mothershipresidencies · The Mothership Artist Residencies". Tumblr. Retrieved 2025-06-21.
- ↑ "Limestone Interruptions – Anna Best Archive". Retrieved 2025-06-21.
External links
This article "Anna Best" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Anna Best. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
- 21st-century English artists
- English women artists
- Artists from London
- 1965 births
- British contemporary artists
- English installation artists
- English performance artists
- English sculptors
- English women sculptors
- Women installation artists
- British women artists
- Women performance artists
- Women sculptors
- Women video artists
- British video artists
- Performance artists
- Installation artists
- Video artists
- Alumni of Coventry University
- English artists
- British artists
