LIVES AND WORKS IN LONDON AND HAYLING ISLAND, UK
BA HONS FINE ART : UAL,Chelsea College of Art, 2016
MA Sculpture : Royal College of Art, 2024
Mentor - UAL (University of the Arts, London)
Member Artists Union England
Flora Duley’s sculptural practice includes social interaction, dialogue and performativity working across public space, institutions, and exhibition contexts. Her work examines how participation, learning, and behaviour are mediated within contemporary cultural and civic environments.
A central strand of Duley’s research investigates Play in Culture. Play is understood not just as entertainment, but as a formative cultural process. Drawing on the etymology of play, including the German 'pflegen'—to care for, cultivate, and tend—Duley uses play as a method of attention, interaction and transformation. Within her work, playful structures allow rules, habits, and social expectations to be tested without being dismantled, opening up a space for reflection, curiosity, and care within public settings.
Duley’s practice is informed by the threefold social organism, structured through a clear differentiation between cultural life, social life (also human rights // political), and economic exchange. This structure is particularly important within public art commissions, where cultural expression, civic responsibility, and economic frameworks intersect.
Looking at sculpture as a social context, the work becomes a tool for interrelation, bringing in the everyday, using collective moments in social ways to play on the automation of the institution, of learning, to question hierarchy, and set up situations that are playful, communal and experimental.
Turning a critical eye on the contexts that define, even crush, societies, from economics and laws to rules and norms, Duley’s work responds to these larger concerns by turning them into theatrical, playful spectacles that in turn are mirrored in the visual language of the sculptures, emphasising touch, texture and colour in the yoga bricks, neon balls, mats, stretch bands and other equipment, the remnants of a material consumerist game.
Public Engagement Projects: scroll down - See Below
LONG TERM PROJECT:
Art and Education Space
www.foldandflow.com
BA HONS FINE ART : UAL,Chelsea College of Art, 2016
MA Sculpture : Royal College of Art, 2024
Mentor - UAL (University of the Arts, London)
Member Artists Union England
Flora Duley’s sculptural practice includes social interaction, dialogue and performativity working across public space, institutions, and exhibition contexts. Her work examines how participation, learning, and behaviour are mediated within contemporary cultural and civic environments.
A central strand of Duley’s research investigates Play in Culture. Play is understood not just as entertainment, but as a formative cultural process. Drawing on the etymology of play, including the German 'pflegen'—to care for, cultivate, and tend—Duley uses play as a method of attention, interaction and transformation. Within her work, playful structures allow rules, habits, and social expectations to be tested without being dismantled, opening up a space for reflection, curiosity, and care within public settings.
Duley’s practice is informed by the threefold social organism, structured through a clear differentiation between cultural life, social life (also human rights // political), and economic exchange. This structure is particularly important within public art commissions, where cultural expression, civic responsibility, and economic frameworks intersect.
Looking at sculpture as a social context, the work becomes a tool for interrelation, bringing in the everyday, using collective moments in social ways to play on the automation of the institution, of learning, to question hierarchy, and set up situations that are playful, communal and experimental.
Turning a critical eye on the contexts that define, even crush, societies, from economics and laws to rules and norms, Duley’s work responds to these larger concerns by turning them into theatrical, playful spectacles that in turn are mirrored in the visual language of the sculptures, emphasising touch, texture and colour in the yoga bricks, neon balls, mats, stretch bands and other equipment, the remnants of a material consumerist game.
Public Engagement Projects: scroll down - See Below
- Permanent Public Artwork. Commissioned by Portsmouth City Council and Aspex Gallery Portsmouth. Funded by Arts Council England. Sept 2025 - May 2026
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- 'SLIPPAGE' Flora Duley in Conversation with Scarlett Wilson, AMP GALLERY, Peckham LONDON September 2025
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- ARTIST IN RESIDENCE AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2025 -Aspex Gallery Artist Residency Studio, Portsmouth
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- 'ARTIST IN RESIDENCE' APRIL _ MAY 2025 'ARK DICKENS ACADEMY' PORTSMOUTH
- Commissioned ARTIST LED CPD, CHILDREN'S WORKSHOPS AND EXTERIOR WALL PERMANENT FEATURE/INSTALLATION
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- The COLAB/RCA/YSP Graduate Award Recipient 2024 -2025 at the COLAB The Artists Garden London, December 2024 - March 2025
- "How to Play Obey and Serve" Performance Lecture, The Artists Garden, London. March 2025
- "The Bat is simply an advance Pear" SOLO SHOW, ACE Invited Artist commissioned by SPUDworks, Hampshire. Exhibition and Public Artwork, 2024
- Residency 'Fold and Flow', with Artists Caitlin Hazell and Scarlett Wilson "Boundaries of Collective Working' 2024
- Selected Artist: New Blood Art Prize 2024
- "Is there something I should know that I don't know already?" Standpoint Gallery. 6th Sense Collective 2024
"The Tutorial", Performance and Sculpture. Part of "CONSUMED" Group Show RCA Sculpture Goods Lift,2024-
- Selected Artwork: Smart Phones: Changing Landscapes, SPUDWorks (spud.org.uk) 1 Dec 22 - 14 Jan
- Commission: Wall Mural and Drawings: Beneath the Surface: The revealed secrets of prolonged observation. Extons Barn, Somerset. September 2021
- Commission: Ceramic 'Beatlejuice' Beakers 'Loco Loaf' Bakery June 2021
- Invited Artist Sculptural Intervention ‘From the Living Room’ Online Instagram Exhibition. 2020 Curator: Vinona_tvj
- Participatory Social Sculpture: ‘The Gaming Table’ Group Exhibition” 2019 Smorgasbord.
- Sculpture 'See it, Say it, Sorted' Group Exhibition. 2019. Title: Units Of Measure. Take Courage Gallery. London.
- ‘Sculpture ‘Get off the Grass you Silly Shepherd’ Group Exhibition. 2019. Title: The Absurd: Candid Arts Trust. London.
- Sculpture ‘The school Chair’. Group Exhibition. 2019. Title: Baggage. Take Courage Gallery. London.
- Video History Interviewer: 2018. ‘Southwark Education Research Project.’ London. http://archive.peckhamplatform.com/items/show/193
- Painting and Drawings/Book Illustrations Solo Exhibition. 2017. Title: Art of Concentration: RS House. London
- Participatory Sculpture. ‘Golf Sculpture Kit’ Group Exhibition. 2017. Title. Second Draft: Safehouse. Peckham Fringe. London.
- ‘Paintings Group Exhibition: 2017. Title: Fuze: The Yard. Vauxhall. London.
- ‘Paintings. Group Exhibition. 2017. Title: Gebilde Painters: 5th Base. London. (Part of
Whitechapel Gallery Lates) - Paintings and Curation. Group Exhibition. 2016. Title: Draft: Safehouse. Peckham
Fringe. - Painting and Curation. Group Exhibition. 2016. Let The Dust Settle: The Crypt. London.
- Commission: 2015. Film Maker ‘Where will we Live’ Changing Face Collective.
Southwark Playhouse. https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/archive2015/where-will-we-
live/##cast - Selected Artist: 2015. Film. Title: House me Sweet Project Title: Look at the E-State
we’re in: Peckham Pelican. London https://katiebeswick.com/2014/06/08/look-at-the-
estate-were-in/ - Commission: 2009 - 2010 Book Illustrations. Publisher: Lammers-Koll Verlag,
Germany. Graphite/Watercolour Portraits and Botanical drawings.
- Selected and Recent Creative Facilitation Projects:
- Invited Artist Workshop Lead "Thank you for your Cooperation" and Participant in Curated Evening Event with 'Chain Reaction' at PADA Studios Lisbon. 2025
- Invited Artist In Conversation with Isabella Niven Head, Social Practice, Lisa Nash, Curator Social Practice, ACAVA Flourish Panel Webinar: "FLOURISH: FROM RECOVERY POST GRENFELL TO DEFINING THE VALUE OF CO-CREATION
- Pallant House Gallery: Young Peoples Consultation - Evaluation Project (University of Chichester, Chichester College and TBC)
- Jan - March 2024
- March 2024: Artist Workshop: ' What are meaningful outcomes for Community Engagement?"Symposium - Creating Community: Exploring Values Led Engagement Symposium | Creating Community: Exploring Values Led Engagement at Pallant House Gallery (Engage.org)
- Visualising - 'Guiding Principles"- A collaboration with Artist, Sadie St. Hilaire, ACAVA "Flourish Program. February 2024
- Natural History Museum / ACAVA Communities in North Kensington - Terracotta Tiles 'Urban Garden Project' Sept - Nov 2023.
- John Hansard Gallery - Young People Project July - Sept 2023
- 'Playful' - Co-Created Exhibition: ASPEX and PCOS 'Refugee and Asylum Seeker Project' July 22 - Oct 22
- ACAVA Flourish 'Breathe' and Watts Gallery Initiative: Gallery Resource Design - Artist Lead Family Art Workshop - 2021 - 2022
- ASPEX Young Curators 14 - 19 yr olds: Artist Lead - July 2021 - March 2022
- ACAVA Flourish Summer Programme: Consultation Artist - Architectural Structures (jankattein.com) 2021
- Southwark Park Galleries Seniors Arts School : Virtual Atmospheres Project (Big Lottery Community Fund, Arts Council England)
- Southwark Park Galleries Artist Associate: Design and Delivery Seniors Art School (2018 - Present)
- Arts Council England - Emergency Fund 2020
- Peckham Platform (2017 - Present) Freelance Learning Coordinator
- Tate Exhange, Flat Time House, Peckham Platform - Project Coordinator - SERP Reactivated.
- Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art. Artist Educator: Families Arts Workshops,Visual Artist: Great Art Quest - 2016 - 2020
- Watts Gallery Artists Village: Artist Workshop Leader - Clay and Ceramics Artist Facilitator and ‘The Make Space’ 2019 -2020
LONG TERM PROJECT:
Art and Education Space
www.foldandflow.com