Who Told You To Be Small WIP

Off the back of running stand-up in London last year, Beth Knight is doing a preview of her Edinburgh Festival Fringe Who Told You To Be Small at The Glasgow Art Club. It’s a story of empowerment through vulnerability with paintings and comedy. You can see her works here (bethknight.com).

Beth Knight used nude self-portraits to overcome the shame she held about her body. She started small, painting herself in an unflattering light crying, and showing that painting to the world. Piece by piece, she put her shame about her looks on blast, with each painting becoming larger and more intimate. It culminated in a pop-up gallery using wall-sized advertisement space in the London Underground, with her painted nude portrait standing 5 and a half meters tall for the world to see. She tackled the misogyny around the standards of beauty that kept her hiding her body for decades by diving into the fear with art and laughter.

This show displays these paintings as she uses her art and comedy to walk you through the journey that led to her freedom. She hopes you, the audience will leave feeling better in your skin, laughing along the way.

She received my Masters in Fine Art from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She is a feminist artist who likes to use her work to help people of all genders break free from the deeply ingrained patriarchal structures that shame them into submission.

With support from Sarah Jane Judge.

Doors open at 6:30pm and the show starts at 7.30pm.

Follow her on IG @mary.beth.knight

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Glasgow Art Club, 185 Bath Street, Glasgow, United Kingdom