About Hysterical

For the past three years, Bee Illustrates & Cheer Up Luv have been organising and curating Hysterical: an exhibition and series of creative events raising money for charity. In 2024, the show was visited by more than 500 people, featured 13 artists and was covered by BBC Radio London, Freeda, Woo News, Getty Images, Huck, CASS Art, The Evening Standard and South East Londoner.

The what:

  • Founded in October 2021, Hysterical is an annual group art exhibition and roster of events raising money for charity during Women's History Month.

  • A platform for showcasing artwork from women and people of marginalised genders.

  • Hysterical is also an ever-growing collective that exhibits work from a new group of artists, with a new theme each year.

The WHy:

  • By combining current affairs, feminism and creativity in one exhibition, and encouraging people to engage with subversive art in an inclusive physical space, we hope to play a part in creating the change we wish to see in the creative industry.

  • We created Hysterical in order to give people the space to appreciate art and partake in activism simultaneously, through attending educational creative events that support feminist and LGBTQ+ charities.

  • Hysterical was also born out of a desire to help make the art world more accessible, and create an exhibition with women and marginalised genders at the forefront.

videography & editing courtesy of Mara Vodinelic

the founders

Bee (they/them) is an illustrator, curator, and interdisciplinary creative based in London, who uses their platform to share distinctive, quirky illustrations intended to educate, empower, and inform. Bee’s work often centres around personal narratives from their own experiences of navigating mental health issues and exploring their queer identity. Bee graduated from The University of Edinburgh with a First Class BA (Hons) in Illustration, having also completed courses in Queer Studies, Curation and Social Anthropology. In 2022, Bee was Longlisted for the World Illustration Awards for their piece Lovers.

Eliza Hatch (she/her) is a photographer, activist, curator and host of The Cheer Up Luv Podcast. In 2017 Hatch founded Cheer Up Luv, a photo series dedicated to retelling accounts of street harassment. Her work has branched into workshops, exhibitions, lectures and has led to working with global organisations, such as The United Nations, Apple and TEDx. The series has been featured by the BBC, The Guardian, i-D and Dazed to name a few, and in 2019 won the Webby for Best Individual Editorial Feature with “Don't Look Away”, a joint campaign with the UNFPA.