Announcing a new exhibition by Clare Phelan - The Hepworth Wakefield Print Fair Prize winner 2025
14 Oct 2025
The Hepworth Wakefield is pleased to announce an exhibition by Clare Phelan – the recipient of the gallery’s Print Fair Prize for 2025.
The free exhibition, Clare Phelan: Do Not Fold Spindle or Mutilate, will open in The Hepworth Wakefield café in November and visitors will be able to purchase the artworks on display with all sales supporting the artist and The Hepworth Wakefield.
Working primarily as a printmaker, West Yorkshire-based Phelan has developed an interest in mass-produced found objects, using them as her printmaking matrix.
Influenced by the post-industrial landscapes of Northern England, where she has lived all her life, her current practice utilises obsolete nineteenth and twentieth century coding technology artefacts, such as textile jacquards, music box discs and IBM punch cards. Phelan employs traditional analogue printmaking processes that mirror the labour embedded in these found materials. Through her work, the binary language of the machine unfolds in rhythmic patterns, bridging the physical past with the digital present.
Phelan said: ‘It’s a great honour to be the recipient of this year’s Print Fair Prize and I’m looking forward, as part of this exhibition, to launch a new series of six prints inspired by Barbara Hepworth’s The Family of Man sculptures.’
Clare Bridge, Retail Buyer and Product Developer at The Hepworth Wakefield, said: ‘Clare’s print complement The Hepworth Wakefield’s post-industrial setting on Wakefield’s waterfront. Visitors can experience Phelan’s work in the informal setting of The Hepworth Wakefield café, that encourages close, thoughtful engagement, and envision how these beautiful prints might look on their own walls at home.’
Clare Phelan: Do Not Fold Spindle or Mutilate will be on view in The Hepworth Wakefield café from Saturday 22 November 2025, opening to coincide with the gallery’s popular Festive Market weekend. Visitors can preview the exhibition on Friday 21 November, 7-10pm, at a free opening event celebrating the gallery’s autumn/winter programme of exhibitions and events.
The Print Fair Prize, open to all artists and collectives participating in The Hepworth Wakefield’s 2025 Print Fair, was devised as part of the gallery’s work to support artists at all stages of their career. The Print Fair Prize is now in its 7th year and previous recipients include James Bywood, Daisy Jacobs, Tall Paul Kelly and Babs Pease.
Phelan’s prints will be available to purchase from The Hepworth Wakefield’s shop and online at hepworthwakefield.org/shop from late-November.
The Hepworth Wakefield is a charity and shop purchases support our mission to create exceptional art experiences that enhance everyone’s lives.
