Eva Joy London, United Kingdom
Eva Joy creates playful, provocative works that spark conversation about climate crisis, power, and community. Blending humour, protest, and wild urban energy to imagine futures beyond climate collapse and inequality, her work blooms in public space, reaching out for people to connect with this collective act of change.
Eva is a multidisciplinary artivist whose ideas circulate protest, connection, apocalyptic possibilities, climate change and utopia. Working across sculpture, painting, installation, and public intervention, she uses visual storytelling as a catalyst for collective learning and positive social change. Joy holds a BA in Fine Art and Art History from Manchester School of Art and the University of Barcelona, and is currently based in London. Her urban upbringing is central to her practice: the improvisation, grit, humour, and juxtapositions of city life constantly surface in her work. She often challenges the conventions of traditional gallery spaces, favouring community collaboration and public art. These interventions invite participation, encouraging audiences to rethink their relationship with both place and power. Since her first major post-graduate exhibition with Kensington & Chelsea Art Week in 2020, she has worked in residence in India, Mexico and Spain and exhibited throughout the UK and internationally. Recycled materials and found objects frequently appear in her practice—acts of environmental care that simultaneously destabilise the hierarchies and exclusivities of the art world. Joy’s tone moves between humour and urgency, playfulness and critique. She embraces ambiguity as a way to approach overwhelming issues such as climate collapse, social justice, and the legacies of colonial capitalism—believing that laughter, curiosity, and collective imagination are essential tools for survival and change.
Links: 'SILENCED ~ REACTIVATED' residency with Idensitat in Alicante, Spain. https://www.idensitat.net/en/current-projects/transversal-aesthetics-2/id-cmcv/silenced-reactivated/1792-open-studio-shell-talk-3
Sky Arts Interview for 'Unmuted' Season 2 Episode 5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7YAYIXut-c&t=7s&ab_channel=LicklemorProductions
Artwork
JOY X BALANCE, Spray Paint, 2025
Mera Gaon, Spray Paint / Spray Paint on Wood, 2025
Mera Dagra, Public Intervention / Sculpture, 2025
Pinche Pemex, Mole Salsa, acrylic and crayon on board., 2022
OJOS, Placards: mole and mixed media on canvas, wood, ribbon, acryclic., 2022
Radical Hope, Digital Collage, 2021
JOY, Paste-Ups, spray paint, ceramic, work on canvas/ scrap materials., Ongoing
Scraps, mixed media on canvas, 2017, on request
And So We Dig, thread, oil on paint rag, 2018
Suburb Life, collage, oil and acrylic on scrap board, 2017
Watching-Waiting, ink drawings onto original photographs, 2019
Turbines by a River, Lino print and mixed media, 2017
It's a Sign (The Beginning, The Flood, War, Utopia), mixed media on concrete/plastic panels on wooden post, 2017
I Wish I Could Laugh, nitrous oxide canisters, tape, glaze, acrylic, 2020
Concrete Dutch Landscapes, Paper collage and acrylic on board, 2017
Bleach, Rise , spray paint and acrylic on board, 2018
Outside There Were Flowers, Installation: sterling board flowers, children's drawings, sound., 2018
Medusas (Jellyfish), recycled plastic, metal and thread, 2019, individually on request
Se Despiertan (They Awaken), bronze, 2019, as a pair £2,750, prints also available
A Curious Electricity Pylon, mixed media on scrap metal frame, 2020
Venting in Ryebank, Film, 2020
Pandemic Spring, Mixed media on canvas, 2020
Hate is Incompatible , oil and collage on watercolour paper, 2021
All this Wanting, graphite and acrylic on wood, 2022, 40x42cm
Shell Talk (La Concha Que Habla), Sound Sculpture / Public Intervention, 2023
Projects and exhibitions
| Details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Project Equilibrium 202525/02/2025 — 07/03/2025 Sandarbh opened the Project Equilibrium 2025 exhibition on site on the 25th of February and then took the exhibition to Udaipur two days later to showcase works created during the four-week arts incubator program in Partapur. Project Equilibrium, established in 2014, is a cultural initiative exploring the interconnectedness of art and... [Read more] |
Sandarbh & Takhman Art Gallery, Partapur & Udaipur | Details |
|
SILENCED ~ REACTIVATED an Idensitat exhibition14/09/2024 — 02/11/2024 SILENCED~REACTIVATED united artistic projects which took place in Alicante, Valencia, and Benicarló, within the Transversal Aesthetics residencies programme, conceived by Idensitat in collaboration with the Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana. Projects including 'Shell Talk' by Eva Joy & Sally Maclachlan. The exhibition includes... [Read more] |
Centro Cultural Las Cigarreras, Alicante, Spain | Details |
|
The PATHs Artivist Awards Biennale03/09/2024 — 03/11/2024 The “PATHs” exhibition at Palazzo Pisani Revedin, curated by Peter Hopkins with co-curation by Diana Hohenthal und Bergen, offers visitors a vibrant artistic experience featuring installations, videos, photographs, paintings, and performances. Artists from around the world present works that delve into the complexities of identity in a... [Read more] |
Palazzo Pisani Revedin, Venice | Details |
|
Yard Show17/08/2024 A fundraising pop-up arts event curated by Earthlings for The Refugee Community Kitchen with a exhibiting artists, independent stalls and DJs. |
Unit 3 Gallery, London | Details |
|
Shell Talk, Residency with Idensitat and the Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana10/12/2023 — 15/12/2023 Activating community connections and public spaces with collaborations and workshops to culminate in a parade of talking Pinna Nobilis audio sculptures. These shells amplified the stories collected over the course of the residency through internal speakers made from recycled materials. The Nacra, or Pinna Nobilis, is a Mediterranean inhabitant... [Read more] |
El Centro Cultural Las Cigarreras, Alicante | Details |
|
The Exquisite Corpse15/06/2023 — 21/07/2023 With SHIM Art Network and Amy Jackson, photographs of my bronze cast virus forms 'Se Despiertan' were exhibited as part of The Exquisite Corpse collating environmental-artworks. The concept of the Exquisite Corpse allows artists from all over the world to achieve representation in exhibitions without the need for expensive and unsustainable... [Read more] |
Bla Bla Projektraum Germany & World of MOCO USA, Berlin & Bridgeport | Details |
|
The Absurd26/08/2021 — 30/08/2021 Curated by FUBAR Collective, The Absurd featured the work of forty artists responding to the theme. Set in the amazing space of London’s Crypt Gallery, visitors were invited to wander around the 200-year-old crypt & immerse themselves in visual, interactive & performance art. I displayed five works; my Venting in Ryebank short film, large A... [Read more] |
The Crypt Gallery, London | Details |
|
The Postcard Project14/08/2021 — 15/08/2021 At the beginning of November 2020, and the start of the UK’s second national lockdown, ARTISTS RESPONDING TO ... sent 200 postcards across the UK to 200 artists. These artists were invited to reflect on the year 2020 and create artwork directly onto the postcards. The artistic responses in the project range from paintings, drawings, lino... [Read more] |
147 Stoke Newington Highstreet, London | Details |
|
Unmuted Sky Arts04/08/2021 — ongoing I was featured on Licklemore Production's 'Unmuted' to discuss my work and how art can engage in protest and environmental discourse. Series 2 Episode 5. |
Sky TV, Televised | Details |
|
Photopocene Podcast27/06/2021 — ongoing https://anchor.fm/photopocene/episodes/Photopocene-with-Eva-Lawrence---Episode-10-e13egp7 |
Online, Online | Details |
|
Inner-City: Out of Place VR Exhibition24/04/2021 — ongoing https://loisemmaharkin.wixsite.com/innercityoutofplace Inner-City: Out of Place was designed to challenge the possibilities of contemporary exhibition design and Post-Studio practice. With no physical site to attend, measure, design or curate, this exhibition takes a step towards representing and understanding a turn of abstraction in... [Read more] |
Online | Details |
|
Little Voices, Kensington + Chelsea Art Week11/10/2020 A group exhibition curated by Amy Jackson as the closing event of Kensington and Chelsea Art Week consisting of both emerging and established artists addressing the topic: transforming society to solve the climate crisis and the greatest inequalities of our time. Little Voices comprised of sculpture, performance, spoken word and visual art... [Read more] |
Chelsea Telephone Exchange, London | Details |
|
Black Lives Matter Protest07/06/2020 I set up this event with the help of BLM West London and Extinction Rebellion Richmond to provide an opportunity to protest for those who did not want to risk going into Parliament Square to join the bigger marches in town. I timed the silence, publicised the event and provided large banners to line this busy street. I believe this protest... [Read more] |
Kew Green, London | Details |
|
Street Exhibition16/05/2020 As an alternative to the final show of my degree I decided to put on an exhibition along the brick walls and back fences of my small street, inviting local kids and artists to join me. The day brought a sense of community to streets around us and has inspired me to keep making more unconventional spaces for art. You can view the exhibition at:... [Read more] |
Hounslow, London | Details |
|
Walled, Hulme Community Garden Centre29/02/2020 — 03/03/2020 A group exhibition organised by the Arts Society at Manchester School of Art, thematically exploring environmental concerns within an urban context. The works were displayed around this much loved community garden centre alongside workshops blending arts and permaculture practices. |
Hulme Community Garden Centre, Manchester | Details |
|
All-Saints Takeover Protest14/02/2020 — 14/10/2020 I organised this protest event to raise awareness of the Save Ryebank Fields campaign among the student population as it is Manchester Metropolitan University who are selling off the land given to them by the council to be used as a student resource. The event coincided with a Climate Strike march into town and with Valentines Day hence the... [Read more] |
All Saints Square, Manchester | Details |
|
30 Pieces of Bronze13/06/2019 — 15/06/2019 In this beautiful squatted art center in the hills of Barcelona myself and other artists from my metalwork class at The University of Barcelona Belles Artes put on an exhibition of our works in bronze alongside La Experimental’s weekend program of music and meditation events. |
La Experimental, Tibidabo, Barcelona | Details |