Susan Tebby (b. 1944, Wakefield) is a British constructivist artist, researcher and educator whose work explores the relationship between mathematics, systems, perception and constructive art. Educated at Goldsmiths’ School of Art between 1962 and 1966, where she received a distinction for her dissertation Rhythmic Proportion: a Study of the Relationship Between Art and Mathematics, she later completed postgraduate study at Chelsea School of Art. Between 1976 and 1983, she undertook interdisciplinary doctoral research jointly at the Slade School of Fine Art and Leicester Polytechnic. Her PhD project, Patterns of Organisation in Constructive Art, was among the earliest practice-based research doctorates awarded by the CNAA, combining a substantial written thesis with an exhibition of artworks.

Tebby taught at Leicester Polytechnic from 1967 onwards, initially in Industrial Design, then in Fine Art, and later served as Head of Sculpture from 1988 to 1992. In 1994, she was awarded a Personal Chair in Fine Art with responsibility for research across the School. Alongside her academic career, she lectured widely on constructivism, interdisciplinary practice, creativity, and public art, and delivered talks in both the mathematics and archaeology departments at universities including Oxford, Edinburgh, and Warwick.

Her artistic practice developed through constructive and systems-based methodologies grounded in mathematics, permutation and spatial organisation. Reliefs and sculptural works from the late 1960s and 1970s explored reflective surfaces, colour interaction and pendulum permutations, while later lattice-based works investigated structure, topology and spatial transformation. Projects such as Ten Columns (1972), Permutation of 4, with Blue and Red (1975), Topological Equivalents (1981) and Development of Lattices No. IV (1981–82) demonstrates her sustained interest in systematic visual processes and the interaction between geometry, light and perception.

Since the mid-1960s, Tebby has exhibited extensively in the UK, Europe and the United States, participating in more than one hundred solo, group and touring exhibitions. Significant exhibitions include a solo exhibition at the Serpentine East Gallery in 1971, Nature-Structure-Construction in Finland (1983), Arte Systematico y Constructivo in Madrid (1989) and Constructivism: Man Versus Environment in Rotterdam (1989). Her work has also featured in exhibitions at the Mondriaanhuis and in displays drawn from the Arts Council England Collection.

Alongside gallery-based practice, Tebby has completed numerous public commissions and architecturally integrated projects since 1965. These include Layered Lattices (1986–   89) for Hammersmith Hospital, Interconnections (1988–89) for British Rail, Hill, Beck and Marsh (1991–93) for Quarry House in Leeds, and Tidal Reach (1993–95), an electronically programmed water feature for Rochester City Council. Her work combines constructive principles with environmental, architectural and social concerns, extending systems-based art into public space and urban experience. More recently, she has shown work at the Mosman Gallery in Sydney, Australia (2022) and the Holburne Gallery in Bath, UK (2024).

Tebby has also undertaken significant research and writing on constructivism, archaeology, and geometric design, publishing studies of Roman geometric tessellated pavements and contributing essays on artists, including Ann Sutton (2004), Kenneth Martin (2022), and Mary Martin (seven mini-essays on her works, for Bonhams auctioneers, 2026). Her artworks are held in numerous public and private collections in the UK and internationally.

• Website: http://www.susantebby.co.uk