Sam Treadaway is a British multidisciplinary artist, curator, educator and creative organiser based in South West England. His work moves between sculpture, artists’ books, installation, scent, sound, performance and environmental practice.
He is known for taking ordinary materials, objects and systems and giving them new meanings. A wooden pallet, a sketchbook, a scent, a piece of coal or a practical structure can become the starting point for a deeper artistic idea. His practice explores the tension between how something looks and what it was originally designed to do.
Treadaway works across different subjects, including science, philosophy, music, perfumery, ecology, human rights and activism. He also identifies as neurodiverse and uses his creative work to explore unusual connections between materials, senses and ideas.
Sam Treadaway Age and Early Life
The strongest age evidence comes from a Companies House record for Samuel George William Treadaway, a British director born in November 1982. If this legal record belongs to the artist, Sam Treadaway is 43 years old in August 2026 and will turn 44 in November 2026.
His creative development began at a young age. In his book project The Mechanism, he revisited poems written when he was between 17 and 21. He later treated those poems as instructions for a series of graphite drawings. The dates in this project fit comfortably with a person born in 1982, although they do not independently confirm the Companies House record.
Family Background in Devon
Sam Treadaway grew up in a creative family in Devon. His father worked as an architect, while his mother was a primary-school teacher. His younger twin brothers are actors Luke Treadaway and Harry Treadaway.
The family lived near Sandford, close to Crediton. Luke and Harry later became well-known through theatre, film and television. As teenagers, the twins formed the band Lizardsun with their older brother Sam and other friends. This early connection with music may help explain the strong relationship between sound, performance and visual art in Treadaway’s later work.
Sam Treadaway Education and Artistic Vision
Sam Treadaway studied Fine Art at Winchester School of Art before receiving further training at Goldsmiths School of Art. His education helped him develop an approach that combines traditional artistic methods with unusual materials and sensory experiences.
Rather than focusing on one medium, he works through experimentation. His projects may involve drawing, bookbinding, found objects, scent, sound recordings, food, natural materials or live activity. He often begins with something familiar and changes its purpose.
Materials, Scent and Social Ideas
A major feature of his practice is the use of scent. Smell can trigger memory, place and emotion in a way that visual art alone cannot always achieve. Treadaway has used perfume, honey, earth, wood, coal, plants and fermentation to create installations that invite people to experience art physically.
Environmental issues also play an important role. His work has explored prehistoric forests, industrial materials, food production, climate change and the relationship between people and natural resources. He combines artistic ideas with public discussion, workshops and community involvement.
Sam Treadaway and Revolve:R
Sam Treadaway’s most important long-term project is Revolve:R, an international collaboration created with Dr Ricarda Vidal in 2011.
The project brings together artists, poets, filmmakers, musicians, composers and writers from different countries. Each stage begins with an original artwork. Another participant then responds to it, creating a chain of new work. The process can produce drawings, paintings, poems, films, songs, soundscapes and musical scores.
A Six-Stage Creative Exchange
Each edition contains six stages known as “Revolves”. The participants respond to earlier work rather than starting from a blank page. This creates a changing conversation in which one artistic decision influences the next.
The project combines physical and digital communication. Some artworks are sent through the post, while other contributions are shared electronically. This mixture of old and new methods reflects Treadaway’s interest in the relationship between tactile objects and modern technology.
Four Editions and Global Reach
The project has produced four limited-edition bookworks:
- Revolve:R, edition one in 2013
- Revolve:R, edition two in 2015
- Revolve:R, edition three in 2018
- Revolve:R, edition four in 2023
The fourth edition contains hundreds of artworks, poems, films, songs and soundscapes. It connects contributors from the United Kingdom, Europe, North America, Russia, China, Australia and South Africa.
Revolve:R has also entered important institutional collections, giving the project a lasting place within artists’ book culture.
Major Works by Sam Treadaway
In 2015, Treadaway contributed to Bideford Black: The Next Generation, an Arts Council-supported project shown at the Burton Art Gallery in Devon. Bideford Black is a rare carbon-rich pigment linked to prehistoric plant material.
His contribution used scent to evoke the ancient forests that existed during the Carboniferous period. The work connected geology, industrial history, environmental change and human use of natural materials.
For Translation Games, he created Sniff Disc, an olfactory work that transformed a poem into scent. The piece was presented with a talk and performance at the National Poetry Library in London in 2014. It showed how language can move beyond the page and become a sensory experience.
RISE, Air-Lixir and The Mechanism
During a 2016 residency at AirSpace Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent, Treadaway created RISE. The project explored honey, yeast, food, growth and sustainability. He helped transform the gallery into a temporary mead-making environment and worked with local businesses, community groups and artists.
The connected project Air-Lixir examined fermentation, smell and music. Mead and bread-making became part of the artwork, while honey scents were released into the gallery. The project also included workshops and shared food, making the audience part of the creative process.
The Mechanism developed from poems Treadaway wrote during his teenage years and early adulthood. He later combined those poems with graphite drawings in an artists’ book. The work connects his earlier writing with his mature visual practice.
Other works include Pallet Lite, in which a wooden pallet is cut, stained, rebuilt and fitted with lighting. This piece reflects his interest in transforming useful objects into unexpected sculptural forms.
Exhibitions, Residencies and Collections
Sam Treadaway has exhibited in Britain and overseas. His work has been shown in London, Bristol, Exeter, Manchester, Folkestone, Wales, Switzerland, Italy, Israel, South Africa, Hong Kong and the United States.
His residencies have included AirSpace Gallery, the National Trust, ARC in Switzerland, Artphilein in Italy and B&B Project Space in Folkestone. He also created a large sketchbook for Bill Drummond of The KLF during a residency at the Curfew Tower in Northern Ireland.
His work is held in institutional collections connected with Tate, MoMA, the British Library, the Art Institute of Chicago, MIT, California Institute of the Arts, the National Poetry Library, Glasgow School of Art and Goldsmiths.
His professional support has included Arts Council England, AHRC, Intellect Books, Visual Arts South West, a-n, Axisweb, ARC and the Gane Trust.
Teaching and Community Projects
Sam Treadaway teaches bookbinding, sketchbook-making and collage. His workshops often focus on nature, the environment, visual storytelling and the creative reuse of materials.
He has worked with Bristol Folk House, The Bookery in Crediton, the Moorland Imagination Centre, Totnes Climate Hub and the University for the Creative Arts. His teaching style connects practical skills with wider ideas about sustainability and personal expression.
Sam Treadaway’s Current Work
One of his latest major projects is KRATE, a mobile creative studio linked to climate action and net-zero ideas. The studio is designed to travel between locations, support artist residencies and encourage public participation.
KRATE combines a transportable structure, workshop space and environmental thinking. The project is intended to involve artists, communities and local organisations through exhibitions, discussions and practical activities.
Sam Treadaway continues to share new work through his website, Instagram and Threads accounts. His recent activity includes collage workshops, bookbinding sessions, artists’ book projects and environmental collaborations.
Final Assessment
Sam Treadaway has built a distinctive career by combining sculpture, artists’ books, scent, music, environmental thinking and collaboration. His work turns familiar materials into new experiences and encourages people to consider the links between art, science, nature and everyday life.
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