Studio BRUT is an outsider art studio at Arclite House, Swindon. It is run by two working artists, Harrie Dearing and SLART, in partnership with Swindon Culture Collective.
This is not a polished gallery. It is a site of making. A place where materials, ideas and people collide.
Our mission
We champion outsider artists: the overlooked, the self-taught, and those working beyond the limits of the mainstream. We stand in the lineage of Art Brut, a movement that recognised the power of raw, unfiltered expression made outside institutional frameworks, and insisted on its cultural value.
We believe this work is not peripheral. It is vital.
We are building a professional platform where uncompromising, instinct-driven practices are taken seriously. Where artists are supported to develop, exhibit and be seen, without pressure to conform.
The studio is open-plan by design and by principle: a shared ground for exchange, friction and collective energy. We reject isolation in favour of dialogue, mutual support and a living creative community.
We are committed to inclusivity and genuine accessibility. We are part of an ongoing movement, extending the spirit of Art Brut into the present: raw, collaborative and unapologetically visible.
What is Art Brut?
Art Brut, literally “raw art”, is a term coined by the French painter Jean Dubuffet in the 1940s. He used it to describe work made by self-taught artists outside the official art world: art driven by inner necessity rather than training, trends or the market. In English it became known as outsider art.
BRUT takes its name from that tradition. For us it also stands for something simpler: Bold Raw Untrained Talent. Work that speaks with urgency and originality, made by people the art world was not built for.
The studio
Studio BRUT sits inside Arclite House, on the periphery of Swindon’s established arts scene, and that position is the point. The studio is both a physical workspace and a counterpoint: messy, process-driven and alive with experimentation.
The open-plan format encourages dialogue, shared process and cross-pollination between disciplines. It is a working studio first, but the walls do the job of a gallery too, with exhibitions that blur the line between the two.
As the studio grows, so does the programme: guest residencies for outsider artists, community projects, hands-on workshops open to the public, and an ongoing programme of shows featuring studio artists alongside invited practitioners.
The artists
Harrie Dearing
Harrie Dearing is a multidisciplinary outsider artist from Swindon, working across visual art, installation and immersive storytelling, with a specialism in expressionism. She regards her art as a personal act of catharsis; by sharing her work, she hopes others find comfort in the dark.
Her practice is deeply embedded in Swindon’s cultural landscape, from large-scale public murals to collaborations with New Elements / The Festival of Tomorrow, Neon Dance, Shoebox Theatre, Mams Gallery, Artsite and The Hub. She has been commissioned by Wild in Art for public sculpture trails across the UK. In 2023 she was awarded an Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice grant, which led to Stories Written in Stardust, an immersive projection installation staged in an empty Victorian swimming pool for the Festival of Tomorrow.
As a self-taught artist from a working-class background who works outside traditional systems, Harrie is committed to creating space for others who do the same. Her practice centres care, inclusivity and alternative ways of thinking and making.
SLART
SLART (Steven Light) is an outsider and figurative expressionist artist based in Swindon. Self-taught and working outside the mainstream art world, his practice is driven by raw personal experience: adoption, chronic illness, shyness, and an ongoing esoteric and philosophical journey.
He rediscovered art at 37 and has painted prolifically since 2021, working largely in oils and acrylics on large canvases. His work weaves together memento mori, spirituality and nostalgia rooted in 1980s and 90s pop culture, and he is a commissioned muralist with several outdoor works across Swindon. He has exhibited widely, with solo shows in Swindon and London and group exhibitions in Berlin and Brussels, averaging five shows a year since 2021.
SLART actively works to bring outsider voices into established institutions, having shown at venues including Swindon Museum and Art Gallery and The Crypt Gallery, London, making space for artists and stories that too often go unheard.
Our partners
Studio BRUT is run in partnership with Swindon Culture Collective and supported by Hypha Studios, with association to Arts Council England.
We are also proud to be supported by Cass Art, the UK’s leading independent art materials retailer, who have backed Studio BRUT as an in-kind sponsor with a donation of art supplies to help kit out the studio. Their mission, “let’s fill this town with artists”, could not be closer to our own. Read the full story: Cass Art: BRUT is proud to call you a partner.