May Hands
Artist Profile
May Hands is a British artist whose practice explores material memory, urban detritus and the poetics of everyday surfaces. Gathering fragments from urban and natural environments — discarded packaging, woven fibres, organic remnants — Hands constructs assemblages that reframe overlooked matter as culturally and emotionally charged.
May Hands’ work brings natural and man-made elements into subtle tension, exploring consumption, ecology and the quiet narratives embedded within the everyday. Chance and instability are integral to her process: materials are layered, dyed, woven and reworked, with imperfection incorporated rather than concealed.
May Hands completed her MFA at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2020, following a BA (Hons) in Painting from Camberwell College of Arts in 2013. She has presented solo exhibitions including All That Is Left at Bosse & Baum, London (2022), and Best Before End at White Crypt, London (2019). Her work has also featured in recent group exhibitions at Projektraum London and Claas Reiss, consolidating her position within material-led contemporary practice.
Across her work, May Hands examines how remnants of daily life can be reorganised into new systems of attention and value.
