Lucy J Wright is an artist based in Leeds.

She works across sculpture, performance and research to explore the spaces where folklore, feminism and social practice meet. Her projects often emerge from years of study into under-recognised and female-led traditions, especially those associated with her own working-class upbringing in the north—resulting in artworks that serve both as invitations and provocations.

Concerned that the current resurgence of folk interest often hangs on exclusionary ideas from the past, Lucy’s work explores and reframes folk as a critical agent for contemporary resistance, speaking to the culture we create for ourselves and its radical potential. Through ongoing interventions in and with existing folk practices, and the playful invention of incisive new ones—Wright’s work encourages viewers to reimagine what kind of traditions we need to create today, for living together on a divided planet.

Recent activities include Our Wic for Arts&Heritage / Create Berwick, Dusking III at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Timespan (Scotland); Wild Witness for Castlefield Gallery and A Reet Northern May Day for Offbeat Film Festival at the Mildmay Club, London.

Since 2023, Lucy has presented solo shows at Portico Library (Manchester) and Field System (Devon); group shows at Bloc Projects (Sheffield), Leeds Art Gallery and Haarlem Artspace / Kristian Day Gallery (Wirksworth, Derbyshire), residencies at Hospitalfield, Morning Boat (Jersey) and the Hugo Burge Foundation and speaking engagements at the British Academy and Claire Bishop’s ‘Ancestral Avant-gardes’ at Manchester School of Art.

Lucy is a ‘hedge morris dancer’, author of the ‘Folk is a Feminist Issue’ manifesta, and originator of ‘Dusking’, a 100% invented tradition and annual participatory project for anyone who has ever wanted to dance the sun down!