Beverley Duckworth’s first solo exhibition, From Below, at SLQS Gallery made an impression as one of the most thought-provoking and original exhibitions of London Gallery Weekend 2026. Bringing together living installations, delicate root drawings, preserved archives and politically charged sculptural works, the exhibition is a compelling meditation on ecological systems, activism and the unseen networks that shape both nature and society.
A Goldsmiths MFA graduate, winner of the Royal Society of Sculptors’ Gilbert Bayes Award and a recent artist-in-residence at the Sarabande Foundation, Duckworth has rapidly emerged as one of the most distinctive voices working at the intersection of sculpture, installation, textiles and environmental practice. From Below demonstrates why.
Rooted in her background as a social and environmental justice campaigner, Duckworth approaches seeds not merely as botanical matter but as agents of change. “I conceptualise seeds as activists,” she explains. “The way they find their way through cracks in the concrete and collectively have the power to overcome whole landscapes.” This idea forms the conceptual foundation of an exhibition that considers resistance as something that often begins invisibly, beneath the surface.
At the heart of the show are a series of remarkable living seed drawings. Thousands of seeds are carefully sown into intricate geometric patterns on suspended textile panels. As germination begins, the seedlings gradually disrupt and transform the artist’s original compositions. Nature becomes a collaborator, rewriting the work over time and challenging notions of permanence, authorship and control.
Beverley Duckworth explains the inspiration behind From Below: “The exhibition draws on my background as a campaigner for social and environmental justice issues, connecting the strength of activist networks with those of root networks and the power of the collective to bring about change. The works suggest a different way of thinking, one where systems break down, forms shift and new structures quietly rise from below.”
The effect is mesmerising. Arriving at the gallery as tiny shoots, the seedlings visibly grow throughout the exhibition, creating artworks that exist in a constant state of becoming. Duckworth has even developed an innovative hidden irrigation system that automatically waters the works, allowing the living sculptures to sustain themselves while maintaining their quiet sense of autonomy.
Institutions and collectors of Duckworth’s work are able to commission a living artwork, which the artist can install with seedlings and will grow in front of their eyes. Although this means the living artworks have a definitive lifespan, she has created a new kind of art form that people can experience evolving in real-time, by combining sculptural and geometrical forms with nature, textiles and science.
“I developed a hidden irrigation system which self-waters. Previously with my works I’ve had to regularly tend them as part of my practice of bringing that care into the gallery space. But with the SLQS living artworks I’ve developed an irrigation system on a timer so that the panels are self-sustained.” Beverley Duckworth
Alongside these evolving installations are a series of preserved root drawings grown on hand-dyed muslin and mounted within hand-waxed frames. Titled Rise and Reach, these poetic works reveal intricate subterranean pathways traced by roots as they seek nutrients and connection. Delicate and beautiful, they establish the exhibition’s central theme: that strength often emerges through networks we cannot immediately see.
Duckworth’s fascination with hidden systems extends into a powerful new body of wall-based sculptural works combining root structures with electroformed copper. Works including stop.flank.renew, stir.force.risking, shots.meaning.mass and surpassed.events.freedom draw inspiration from historic sites of political protest, including Trafalgar Square in London, Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Tiananmen Square in Beijing and Tahrir Square in Cairo.
Rather than depicting these events directly, Duckworth maps the aerial layouts of the protest sites through root formations, creating subtle cartographies of dissent. The use of copper adds another layer of complexity. Essential to plant growth yet toxic in excess, the material becomes a metaphor for systems that can both nurture and suppress. The works elegantly explore the tensions between power and resistance, support and control.
Duckworth explains her reasoning behind the use of copper: “These pieces incorporate copper which is integral to the hidden plumbing and electrical networks that sustain us, so there’s that parallel with the underground root networks that sustain plants.” Duckworth’s sculptural, wall-based textile works belong to a long tradition of textile artists going back to Annie Alberts at the Bauhaus in early 20th Century Germany, through to Octogenarian textile artist Olga de Amaral. Her work also brings to mind embroidery artist Olga Prinku, who uses nature as her thread, foraging organic materials including plant seed heads to weave incredibly intricate patterns into sheer tulle fabric, bridging traditional embroidery with natural bio-tapestries.
While her use of seeds inevitably recalls Ai Weiwei’s monumental 2010 Sunflower Seeds installation at Tate Modern, yet From Below feels entirely its own. Duckworth’s practice occupies a unique space where scientific enquiry, ecological awareness, activism and craft converge.
Beverley is known really for creating large scale installation seeds and living seed installations. For people who have followed her journey, probably the biggest installation she did was for her Goldsmiths graduate show, which featured over a million seeds that were growing on discarded clothes. Then an iteration of this work was presented at the ICA as part of New Contemporaries. It was a challenge because this show was 3 months long, so Beverley at the time made a decision to show the life cycle of the seeds. The installation was kept alive for a certain period of time and then the seeds died, and that was part of the work.” SLQS Gallery Founder Sarah Le Quang Sang
What makes the exhibition particularly compelling is its embrace of care as an artistic strategy. Duckworth’s practice centres on acts of repair and regeneration: sewing together discarded materials, nurturing fragile seedlings and transforming waste through composting. These gestures may appear modest, but within the context of the exhibition they become quietly radical propositions for how we might rethink our relationship with the natural world.
The exhibition’s title encapsulates this perfectly. For Duckworth, “from below” refers both to the hidden root systems that sustain plant life and to the grassroots networks through which social change emerges. Throughout the exhibition, roots become witnesses, connectors and agents of transformation.
I work with living sculpture and installation, so the exhibition’s title ‘From Below’ came from me thinking about how strength and resistance comes from below, in terms of the root networks that we don’t see. These are a metaphor for the activist networks coming from below that create change. The living work in the exhibition is made up of thousands of seeds, referencing the power of the collective, which I’ve grown in these intricate patterns.” Beverley Duckworth
Intellectually rigorous yet visually captivating, From Below rewards slow looking. It is an exhibition that unfolds gradually, much like the living works themselves, revealing new layers of meaning over time. At a moment when conversations around climate, ecology and collective action feel increasingly urgent, Duckworth offers a nuanced and hopeful perspective grounded in observation, care and interconnectedness.
With From Below, Beverley Duckworth confirms herself as one of the most exciting emerging artists working in Britain today. Her ability to weave together environmental science, political history, sculptural innovation and living systems results in work that is both deeply personal and universally resonant. Culturalee expects to see much more from this perceptive and accomplished artist in the years ahead.
Beverley Duckworth: From Below is at SLQS Gallery, London, until 27 June 2026.
Find more information here.
Review by Culturalee Editor Lee Sharrock
