Playing Games (2022)

100 x 90 cm

Original artwork

Oil on Canvas

Fleur Yearsley (b.1990 Manchester, UK) graduated from an MFA in painting at the Slade School of Fine Art as a recipient of the Gwen John Scholarship in 2017. Her work'To The Moon and Back’ (2019), was part of the John Moore Painting Prize 2020 at the Walker Art Gallery.


Yearsley is this year’s selected artist for the Visual Arts Programme at The Edge Theatre & Arts Centre, which coincides with a solo show curated by Jez Dolan. Last year Yearsley took part in the Laura Owens Residency in Arles, France supported by the LUMA Foundation. In November (2022) the artist had a solo presentation ‘ONE MORE TUNE’ at The Manchester Contemporary representing Paradise Works. Most recently the artist has been awarded the Haworth Trust Scholarship and her work ‘BLOW’ was chosen for the Bankley Open 2022. The same year she curated and exhibited her solo show ‘Coming Up’ at the Ruslan Faraev Institute of Art,
Manchester, and was selected for the Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival at Castlefield Gallery’s New Art Space.


In 2021, Yearsley had a solo show ‘When The Lights Go Up’ at Sapling Gallery, London. She also organised a collaborative art, music and performance show in Manchester titled ‘Anything Goes’ with Alvaro Barrington, Dorus Tossijn, and Kim Harvey. 'Anything Goes' aimed to create a place of solace and unity for people to reawaken Manchester’s dance and club culture, after being gravely impacted by the effects of Covid-19.


Yearsley was selected for both Bow Art’s ‘Annual Open Show 2019’ with a call for works that respond to “our current political moment”, curated by Carey Young, and ‘Boundaries’ that coincided with the London Festival of Architecture. As an awardee of the Jealous Prize 2018 the artist undertook a residency to create limited edition prints of her work that were exhibited at ‘Original London Print Fair’ at the Royal Academy of Arts and in 2019 the prints were officially included in the permanent collection of the V&A Museum.


Other exhibitions include ‘The Iso Box’, a London community focused photography and art collaboration, ‘FBA Futures’ at Mall Galleries, London and ‘Desires’ at GNYP Gallery, Berlin. The artist has undertaken residencies at Slade School of Fine Art, Malvern St. James and Cheadle Hulme School. In 2018 she was the beneficiary of the Almacantar Award. The same year, she was shortlisted for the Dentons Art Prize and the Hottinger Purchase Prize for Excellence. She previously graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Manchester School of Art in 2013.