About
Biography
Sarah Dixon is a social practice artist. Her work explores new ways of relating between the human and the beyond-human.
A neurodivergent polymath, she studied Biology at UCL (1998), worked in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Hindu Kush, and has studied art forms from Orthodox icon painting to Corporate Design. Experiencing autoimmune disease has informed her practice further.
Based in Stroud, UK, Sarah holds an MA in Performance: Society (Distinction) from Central Saint Martins, UAL 2024. She is a Priestess of Cuda and Dedicant of Hecate (2024), and a Relational Dynamics 1st Coach (2019).
Dixon’s work has been shown at the ICA, Oblong Gallery, QUAD Derby, SkyTV, and on a cyberbus in Moscow, amongst other places. She was shortlisted for a Jerwood Bursary Award and performed for New York’s Grace Exhibition Space.
In 2024 she was selected for the SURGE III commission (2024) to work with WEISS medical engineers at UCL to make a film about severe pregnancy sickness (shown in photo), and was also selected for the Mattering Life Residency working in the UCL Nick Lane laboratory to investigate magical practice in relation to lab research into the origins of life.
Her painting practice explores intuitive expression of archetypal Goddess figures from across time and place, using found earth materials and spring water to make egg tempera works on handmade paper. 100 of these paintings formed an installation in 2022 at Lansdown Gallery, Stroud, where visitors were immersed in the many faces of Goddess and a majority of the paintings were sold.
She is a co-founder of The Women’s Art Activation System (WAAS), making performance art and working with people going through pregnancy and birth. As part of the SAFEDI commission she and The WAAS partner Sharon Bennett created The Milky Way, a sticker-game for National Gallery visitors in London. In 2024 The WAAS are running a National Lottery Heritage funded project with Stroud’s Museum in the Park to explore histories of birth.
She also is a founding Director of Stroud Goddess Temple and a supporter of Stroud Against Racism, with a focus on Black maternal health.
artist cv
Grants, Commissions & Awards
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- SURGE III Commission – UAL and UCL WEISS Centre Collaborating with Research Fellow Ryman Hashem to explore stomach robotics and hyperemesis gravidarum (Extreme pregnancy sickness)
- The Baby Makers – creative workshops for women & people in pregnancy and postpartum – National Lottery Community Fund 2021-2022 and 2023-2024
- SAFEDI –The Milky Way: Social Artists for Equity, Diversity & Inclusion – part of AHRC Fellowships with Social Art Network Axisweb and Manchester Metropolitan University 2021
- MELTDOWN: reshaping inherited objects for new legacies Silver Spoons Collective/CuratorSpace bursary 2021
- Miscarriage and Wellbeing: performative rituals for visualizing loss – Cultural Institute Interdisciplinary Research and Impact Fund for Culture/University of Leeds School of Performance and Cultural Industries/NHS/Royal College of Art 2021
- WAAS Project Artist Commission – Social ARTery Pioneers Axisweb 2020
- Social Art Library Ambassador – Archiving UNIDEE Residency – 2020
- ‘What Do You Dream Of?’ – Summer Street Phone Box Community Art Project – Create Gloucestershire with Strike A Light and Cheltenham Festivals May 2020
- The Periodic Table of Brilliant Women and Girls – Successful Kickstarter campaign to produce a poster for education and inspiration 2020
- a-n mentoring award – with mentor Emilia Telese 2019
- Jerwood Bursary – Shortlisted 2017
- Action Learning Group Coaching – Create Gloucestershire Artist professional development 2016-2017
- Project Grant ‘Painting By Numbers’, Stroud Arts Festival 2013
Artist Residencies
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- Mattering Life – Residency at Central Saint Martins with UCL and Institue of Technology, Japan examining life’s origins from an interdisciplinary perspective
- ‘In Winter’s Depths’ – Hawkwood/Frances W Reckitt Arts Trust – 5-day Residency, Hawkwood, Stroud January 2022
- UNIDEE 2020 ‘Embedded Arts in a Post-Pandemic Future‘ – Biella, Italy (Remote/Virtual) October-November 2020
- Art of Libraries – Residency at Gloucester Library (‘20 Games for Gloucester Library’) August 2017
- Artist Residency in Motherhood – Lenka Clayton’s Model – March 2016 – March 2017
Exhibitions, Talks & Performances
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- The Baby Makers: Making History – The Museum in the Park, Stroud, November 2024
- SURGE III – Artist Commission “Gut Feelings” – Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins, London
- “How a River Can Teach Us About Citizenship” – Conference Presentation, Arts & Citizenship, Northern School for Contemporary Dance, January 2024
- 100 Goddesses – Egg Tempera Paintings & Installation – Solo Show, Lansdown Gallery, July 2022
- The Bureau for the Validation of Art – WAAS – SVA “But is it Art?”
Solo show 2022, Offbeat Festival Oxford June 2021+ Grace Exhibition
Space, New York 2020 + Social Works?: Live, Manchester 2019 + Art Licks
London 2018 - Future Collect Conference: Handle With Care – WAAS presenting – Manchester Art Gallery and Iniva, November 2021
- Meltdown – The Silver Spoons Collective group show, The Storey, Lancaster 2021
- Agony Arts – WAAS – Online participatory performances 2020
- Social Works? Live – WAAS – Manchester – The Bureau for the Validation of Art performed 3 Validations as part of this Axisweb event 2019
- Motherhood & Metamorphosis – Group Show, Lansdown Gallery, Stroud November 2017
- Nasty Women –Auction, Marshall Rooms, Stroud October 2017 (sold ‘An Unpublishable Rant’)
- Mother Bunting in Mom Egg Review – Featured Show, US 2017
- Mother Bunting – Desperate Artwives Collective Show 5th Edition, Lower Marsh, London January 2017
Education
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- MA Performance: Society (Distinction), Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London 2024
- Kin of Cuda Priestess of the Cotswolds, Stroud Goddess Temple – dedicated March 2024
- Relational Dynamic Coach – Culture At Work & Relational Dynamics 1st – 2019
- EdExcel Corporate Design – London College of Printing – 2004
- Biology BSc Hons 2 (i) University College London 1998
Get in touch
- sarah@sarahdixon.studio
- Top Floor, Piccadilly Mill West, off Lower Street, Stroud GL5 2HT
Mon – Thu 10:00-17:00; Fri 10:00-13:00