Libby Bove
Libby Bove [b.1991] is a multi-disciplinary artist and folklorist based in Somerset. Her work is centred around ideas which reposition folk custom and magical practice back at the forefront of daily life. Drawing on archival methodologies and documentary, her work slips between fact and fiction. By employing traditional craft processes, plausibility is woven into constructed myths; transposing ideas of ancient customs, traditions and rituals into incongruous contemporary settings, non-existent pasts, and speculative future landscapes. Working across a range of media including ceramics, textiles and found objects, she creates sculptural works, masks, and wearable costume pieces.
Authenticity, and the potential for the work to be believable, is integral to her practice; physical works are often accompanied by ‘field’ recordings, ‘documentation’ of folk songs, and descriptive ‘historic’ texts, all aimed at crafting a palpable form of surround sound storytelling.
A graduate of Bath Spa University, Bove's work has been presented at the I.C.A. as part of New Contemporaries and at The Box, Plymouth, where she completed the Reimagining the Archive Commission. Her honours include the Henry Moore Foundation Artists Award and the Kenneth Armitage Sculpture Prize. She continues to tour her major project The Museum of Roadside Magic nationally.
Staffordshire St presented ‘The Way of the Roadwytch' Bove’s first solo exhibition in London in September, 2026.
Artworks
To view all works available by the artist and prices please download a sales catalogue here.
For all sales enquires please contact STST Artistic Director, Dee Haughney; dee@staffordshirest.com
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2026
The Way of The Roadwytch (Solo Show), Staffordshire St, London
Rituals of the Roadways. Aesthetica Film Festival, York
ROADWYTCH. Offbeat Folk Film Festival, London
Delphian Gallery Open Call, London
The Museum of Roadside Magic - Touring
2025
Artist Moving Image commission, Exeter Phoenix
OD Arts Festival, Somerset
Folklore and Mythology Digital Commission - The Box & B. F. I. Plymouth
Lore & Land, Field System, Ashburton
The Museum of Roadside Magic - Touring
2024
New Contemporaries, KARST, The Levinsky
Gallery and MIRROR, Plymouth - ICA, London
LORE, Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds
The Museum of Roadside Magic - Touring
Lore & Land, Walcot Chapel, Bath
Therapeutic Landscapes, Worcester
2023
So Turns the Wheel of the M. O.T. (Solo Show), Bristol
Buried Moons. Centrespace/Folk House, Bristol
2022
Radical Terrains, Centrespace Gallery, Bristol
Trans States, The Art of Deception, Northampton
Origins, The Porthleven Prize Exhibitions, Porthleven, Falmouth, Bath
The Oracles (Solo Show), Bath
AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2026
The Artists Prize, Longlist
2025
Henry Moore Foundation Artists Award
Aesthetica Art Prize, Longlist
2024
The Hari Art Prize
New Contemporaries
Spike Island Studio Fellowship
Kenneth Armitage Sculpture Prize
2023
The Porthleven Prize Residency
2021
Curious School of Puppetry Short-term
Residency, Cornwall