Artist statement
Oliver Getley is an artist and organiser working between Leeds and London. His expanded sculptural practice is concept and process driven. A central concern of his practice is the creation of sculptural encounters through a ‘reverse engineering’ of objects and sites, using formal approaches to found material. He uses collaborative and improvisatory techniques to experiment across projects using sound, technology and site-responsive exhibition making.
Site Built (2023) explored the rapid gentrification of Mabgate, Leeds; developing performance workshops with local students to co-create instruments and scores, then re-designed those prototypes as kinetic sculptures that spread throughout the gallery. Since, he has moved towards ideas of ‘non-sites’ and a focus on industrially-produced objects being re-used in art, particularly as this connects sculpture to mechanical and digital technologies.
He is a founding member of LAX (2024-ongoing) and Freehold Projects (2019-20), both artist-led programming groups operating within Leeds. Recent residencies & development programmes include, UKNA’s New Artist Collective (2025), Into the Wild (2020) & YSI Sculpture Network (2022). He has exhibited work across the UK, including Leeds Art Gallery (2023), Eastside Projects (2022) and Camden Art Centre (2022).