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In the studio with Xixi Qian

In the studio with Xixi Qian, a visual artist whose works depict a botanical punk world, fully expressing the alternative spirit of punk culture that transcends societal norms. We met with Xixi to tell us more about growing up in Zhejiang, China, her ideal conditions for creating work, and an unexpected source of inspiration.

When did you first begin to see yourself as an artist?

The moment I graduated from college, when people asked me about my career and work, I would say I was an artist. From the first day of my undergraduate studies, I created my work from the perspective of an artist. 

Where are you from and what was your upbringing like? How has this impacted your work?

I am from Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. From as far back as I can remember in kindergarten, I discovered my passion for drawing. I often participated in painting activities at school, which made my parents start to support me in developing my talent in painting. From elementary school to high school, I served as the publicity committee member of the school, responsible for organizing and participating in the publication of drawings and objects. These experiences gave me a strong interest in painting and I gradually formed professional knowledge. By participating in various competitions and winning awards, I have steadily built up my self-confidence. Therefore, I decided to embark on the path of artistic creation.

Paint us a picture of your artistic journey. What inspired you to first pursue, and then continue to practice, artistic work? 

Ever since I was a child, though immersed in the academic subjects learning, my interest in art creation has never been stifled, the credit of which I suppose should be both given to my born intuition toward art creation and the faith instilled by my educational environment, which boasts the importance of personal striving, leaving little room for people to give up. This has shaped my character and made me always stick to my goals. I just answer to my inner calling and express my heart through artistic language. Gradually, my life goal has become my spiritual pillar.

During the RCA graduation exhibition, people from the Gatehouse Chambers Art Program took a liking to my work, invited me to participate in their project, and provided a sponsorship fee.  This gave me the confidence to believe that I could make a living through my art.

What’s the message of your work? How would you describe your aesthetic? 

My works create a botanical punk world, which is an artistic context constructed by myself. Punk culture represents a non-mainstream fringe culture that aims to transcend social norms and create a unique spiritual utopia. In my works, I use plant elements to extract mutually beneficial elements from nature to express the beautiful vision of cooperation and win-win in society. Taking my hometown Wenzhou as an example, I explored the phenomenon between economic growth and cultural constraints. My creations use plants as a medium to explore various rules and regulations in human society and reflect the complexity of tolerance and opposition. This exploration makes the plant world full of complex and simple beauty due to the diversity of human society. My practice focuses on the properties of rhizomes and fungi, explores the social dynamics of China’s second-tier cities, and interprets the relationship between socioeconomic culture and family, neighbours, and generations from a macro and micro perspective.

My purpose is to change this phenomenon. Even if it just makes people aware of this phenomenon, I will be satisfied. The motivation for creating is not only because I like to create, but also to solve the problems I face in real life, such as whether to stay in the UK or go back to China. This decision is influenced by a variety of factors including parental, familial, communal and intergenerational. So, I started from my family, analyzed my city and hometown, and tried to find an answer.

The purpose of this work is also to gain a deeper understanding of myself. Sometimes, I will read some sociological books as a way of self-psychotherapy (when talking about the content of my works, I will make reference to the books of anthropologist Mr. Xiang Biao). I think it’s treating the symptoms, not the root cause. At the same time, this work is also a criticism of my city (Wenzhou). Although I am not a politician or a government official, I try to offer solutions to this problem and hope that my artistic creation can have some impact. At the very least, I hope that those who have encountered similar problems will agree with me.

My aesthetics are heavily influenced by personal experiences. As Chinese, I like the elegant artistic conception conveyed by traditional Chinese painting. On the other hand, the capitalist society also influenced me, making me have an appreciation for Baroque and Rococo styles. My creative style incorporates these influences, resulting in a Chinoiserie style.

Who are your greatest influences? 

Mr. Xiang Biao, an anthropologist at Oxford University, had a profound influence on me. As a compatriot from Wenzhou, he can interpret this social phenomenon from an anthropological perspective., His views have greatly inspired me to think about the phenomenon behind this society.

An unexpected source of inspiration?

My work has been deeply influenced by Deleuze and Guattari’s book A Thousand Plateaus, which explores non-linear, polycentric, non-hierarchical thinking and social structures. Through this book, I have a new understanding of familiar social patterns. It explores nonlinear, decentralized, and nonhierarchical thinking and social structures, providing a theoretical framework for opposing centrism and hierarchy. In a way, I believe that’s what  my hometown needs to focus on.

What do you want people to take from your work when they view it? 

No matter how the audience reacts to my work, I don’t mind, I am very open to any feedback. But I hope that the audience can think, feel joy or resonate when appreciating my works. Painting has this magical ability to touch people’s emotions and minds, and I hope that the audience will be touched in my works.

Therefore, my work is both abstract and figurative. In future, I hope that more people will have access to art to allow a wider audience appreciate my works. I know that there are still many people in the world who have never been exposed to art and I hope to bring them a beautiful experience.

What events in your life have mobilised change in your practice?

When I was an undergraduate, I studied Fine Art in Chelsea. The school did not have a specific discipline, so I tried almost all media to explore my artistic language. However, in the end I returned to the original art of painting on paper. This is because I found that my parents know very little about contemporary art. I hope to the person I loved can also enter the world of art, so I chose to return to the most basic medium of painting, which is most acceptable for them.

My creative content is also influenced by my living environment. Because I travel frequently between London and China, I have lived in different environments and my family moved for many times. So, when I came to London, I chose some areas with diverse and unique interpersonal relationships as my residing location, such as the border between London’s zone one and zone two and three. These places make me feel a kind of “punk” feeling, and at the same time make me long to be close to nature, so I chose to live in a house close to green space. This choice of environment has had an impact on my creations.

What are your ideal conditions or catalyst for creating a “good” piece of work?

 In my opinion, the ideal conditions or catalysts for creating a “good” work include my personal control and improvisation. In the creation of prints, I need a very strong spirit of control, such as the time of acid corrosion, the number of aquatint rotations, etc., all of which require precise control. However, works created according to these regulations may sometimes lack surprise or special creative randomness. Therefore, I think that creating a good work sometimes requires the ability to adapt to changes, rather than abandoning the work directly. Sometimes, this randomness leads to some serendipitous results.

Tell us about the inspiration behind one of your works?

Titled “String Vibration,” the artwork alludes to the butterfly effect, where small changes can trigger long-term chain reactions. I created a plant punk world based on the symbiotic nitrogen-fixing relationship between legumes and rhizobia to convey the concept of an economically beneficial system. By incorporating plant elements, I hoped to express the idea that although my hometown Wenzhou was originally a harmonious and picturesque city, the rapid industrial development in the past two decades has led to ignorance of cultural preservation and creation. Hopefully, my work can arouse local residents’ reflection.

Normally, people can appreciate the external beauty of landscapes, while having no access to their micro images. The plants I studied show very abstract forms under the microscope. So my work might impress people with its abstract style at the very beginning, kind of illustration-like.  Nevertheless, I do enjoy this abstract way of expression, because abstract things can stimulate more imagination.

Something in the future you hope to explore?

I look forward to the future when I will be able to do more in-depth research on plants and stones and create more abstract works. These works are inspired by the landscapes of my hometown. I hope to use these works to express the relationship between clan relations, economy and culture, as well as the spiritual connotation behind them.

Describe your work in three words: 

Botanical punk, Utopia, win-win cooperation

What do you listen to while you work? Is music important to your art?

Usually I work in two stages: ideation and execution. During the ideation stage, I like to be quiet. In the execution stage, I like to listen to some literati talk shows or listen to audio books. This kind of listening environment helps me maintain a state of thinking and allows me to concentrate on my creation.

What is your favorite read?

I enjoy reading literary fiction and art books. Literary fiction stories fascinate me, while art books – naturally – stem from my interest in art where there is always more for me to learn.

Best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Although not a specific suggestion, the life motto I have always believed in is “sincerity is always a nirvana, and so is painting”.

What makes you laugh?

When I create a work that surprises me, that kind of accidental masterpiece makes me happy. Since printmaking usually requires prior planning and control, I can’t help but laugh out loud when something unintended happens.

What makes you nervous?

Purposeful things usually make me nervous. However, I try to stay calm and approach everything with a sense of normalcy. I believe that the highest state of emotion is to maintain inner peace.

Is there anything you wish you were asked more often?

I don’t particularly want people to ask me questions frequently, I want people to appreciate my paintings. But I welcome any questions based on my work, as it would be a useful discussion of the logic behind my personal work.

Is there anything you’ve recently tried for the first time? 

Recently, I tried to make some 3D models to show the concept of my work, and finally created a installation. I found that I have maintained my courageous personality. Even as I get older, I still maintain my exploration of new things and my courage to try.

Is there anything you’ve been hesitant to try in the past but you’d like to this year?

This year, I’m planning on making my own frames because frames are very important for showcasing my work. I intend to use metal (printmaking materials such as copper plate and zinc plate) and some electronic equipment to make a frame which can keep a unified style with my art work.

Do you have any superstitions?

I believe that science can explain everything, although there may be some phenomena in life that science cannot explain. I am curious about these phenomena and willing to explore them.

Would you rather know what the future holds or be surprised?

If I knew what was going to happen in the future, I would immediately call the smartest people in the world to find the best plan and make the future state of affairs the best. However, I don’t want to know in advance, because it is also very good to let nature take its course. Sometimes I don’t want to intervene in how things are going, because indeterminate intervention can have unintended negative effects.

What palace in your everyday environment do you go to for inspiration?

I love going to botanical gardens and being close to nature for inspiration. There is a lot of pressure in this society, so I will often choose to get close to nature and calm myself down, so as to find inspiration for creation.

What are some things you’re most passionate about outside of your practice?

In addition to artistic creation, I like to grow flowers and grass, or build Lego toys. I will build my botanical punk house, which is also my virtual creation corner. In the future, I hope this cabin will become a powerful installation. I firmly believe that art comes from life. When my friends come to my house, they always say that they can better understand my creation through these installation art works.

What is your relationship with social media?

Well, social media is definitely an important access for me to get information, feedback, and advices. Besides, as a new artist, I can share my art work with more audiences in the virtual platform. So I have to say I do appreciate the development and update of their functions. For me, it would be a little unnerving to lose my electronic connection to the outside world, but I wouldn’t worry if the world went back to flying pigeons or talking face-to-face, because everyone would be equally efficient.

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In the studio with Kasper Jacek

In the studio with Kasper Jacek, a self-taught artist whose practice work explores objects, places, and landscapes in which myths and memories haunt the present. We met with Kasper to tell us more about growing up in a small town close to Aarhus, Denmark, his greatest influences, and letting go and trusting his intuition.

When did you first begin to see yourself as an artist?

I’m still learning how to be an artist and see myself as one. I have a background in History of Ideas and Journalism, working with research dissemination and cultural journalism. I didn’t think I would end up a visual artist, but I have always been writing and exploring all kinds of art. I just started painting seriously four years ago. I got obsessed with it and bought my first 10 meter roll of canvas early in the process. I think that’s the moment. I still get super excited when new rolls of canvas arrive!

Where are you from and what was your upbringing like? 

I’m from a small town close to Aarhus in Denmark, Odder. A couple of years ago my wife and I bought an old house and moved back to Odder. I spent the last couple of years renovating the house and turning the old garage into a studio space. The most important thing for me to tell about my childhood: I have had OCD since I was a child and suffered from obsessions for most of my youth. And I still do. I don’t consider my art to be about mental illness, but I think it has given me something that is evident in my artworks: a vulnerability, a way of being in the world, specific sensibility to my surroundings.

What inspired you to first pursue, and then continue to practice, artistic work? 

My first work was a linocut of a plowed field with a heap of stones at the field’s edge. As I was making this image, I liked the idea of the rounded iron, digging into the lino material almost like the plow into the ground, revealing the layers beneath the surface. This was my first work and since then it’s just been an obsession for me. When I started making paper collages – using the old linocuts as my material – I felt I had found a way of working that fitted the way I like to work with materials; imitating movements and processes in the world. And heaps of stone and fields are still some of my main motifs.

What’s the message of your work? 

My work is very much a continuation of my academic and journalistic work on the subject of place, working with the historicity of places, the mythologies and memories bound to certain objects and places – and exploring new ways to tell stories about objects.

Sometimes I work almost entirely abstract – other times the figurative objects dominate the artwork. I add, cut, rearrange and paint over the layers of material in my collages, leaving only traces of the former layers – or ripping away layers to reveal the past. Things, memories and visions are all piled on top of each other, finding new meaning, intertwining and fragmenting. 

I work with the idea that my artworks are multi-temporal scenes in which myths, old objects, memories and possible futures are all present simultaneously, mixing materials, scales and styles to create dynamic and dense works.

Who are your greatest influences? 

Hannelore Baron’s experiments with fabrics and compositions are a continued source of inspiration – and Anselm Kiefer’s enormous works from the exhibition For Louis-Ferdinand Céline: Voyage au bout de la nuit at Copenhagen Contemporary was my first real life meeting with paintings of that scale and ambition. The flow of the paint and the deep cracks in the thick layers are still very much present in my mind.

But I find daily inspiration in my contemporaries. Right now I love Jadé Fadojutimi, Armando Mesías, Camilla Reyman, Daisy Parris, Stan Van Steendam, Muzae Sesay, Max Freund, Jane Margarette, Marria Pratts, Joshua Hagler, Santeri Lehto, J. G. Arvidsson, Frederic Anderson, Loren Erdrich, Jenny Brosinski, Sóley Ragnarsdóttir, Joël Bigaignon, Gommar Gilliams. And many many more.

An unexpected source of inspiration?

All of my dad’s old hobbies are turning into methods of working with different materials in my works. Growing up, I watched him work with wood, leather, tying flies for fly fishing and metals when he was making lures. I think this gave me a familiarity with all kinds of materials and how to process them. I call him every time I have a new idea.

What do you want people to take from your work when they view it?

I want to create pieces that tell stories about specific places and objects, but leave room for the viewer’s own memories and sensibility to the world.

What events in your life have mobilised change in your practice?

Talking to other artists and studying other people’s art. I have a natural tendency to experiment and integrate new materials and motifs in my works. Talking to other artists and looking at the art that inspires me, made me realize that I need to become more aware of what I consider my own visual language. Now I’m always trying to cut away all of the noise – and do what I do even more and with even more intent and precision. 

What are your ideal conditions or catalyst for creating a “good” piece of work?

I think it is letting go. I have a very clear idea about my compositions and spend a lot of time preparing for my works – sketching, priming canvas, coloring materials, cutting materials and sewing the pieces of material together. This process sometimes leads to works that just hit the spot straight away. But, usually, I have to abandon the initial idea and in this process I struggle to let go – and just start the process of painting and adding new layers of materials. Even though I know that the best works are often the works I have struggled the most with. The short answer: Letting go and trusting my decisions.

Tell us about the inspiration behind one of your works?

In Pendant, I wanted to create a pendant of a bird someone found, wrapped in a small piece of dissolving cloth. I cut leftover canvas and raw material, painted and wove the pieces together.

Something in the future you hope to explore?

I would love to use even more materials in my artworks – I’m currently working on how to integrate metal in my works.

Describe your work in three words:

Memories, layers and materials.

What do you listen to while you work?

Your Queen is a Reptile by Sons of Kemet is an album I have heard on repeat for the last couple of years. I recently went to a great concert with Guiding Star Orchestra. I’m always using all kinds of art to reflect on my own praxis. And during a trumpet solo I thought to myself: My art needs to be like the sound of a trumpet – clean and crisp. I’m still trying to get my artwork to look like the trumpet sounds.

What is your favorite read?

Anything by W. G. Sebald and Herta Müller.

Best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

After having been given an opportunity at a gallery, another artist told me “Now you just have to make work that can’t be ignored.” You easily get caught up in all kinds of stuff. I have to constantly remind myself that it is about the artwork.

What makes you laugh ?

My daughters and Tim Robinson.

What makes you nervous?

This is an old OCD thing: long-distance traveling without access to toilets truly horrifies me.

Is there anything you wish you were asked more often?

I’m self-absorbed enough to always want people to ask me more about my art.

Is there anything you’ve recently tried for the first time? 

Real Spaghetti Carbonara. No cream. Just perfect.

Is there anything you’ve been hesitant to try in the past but you’d like to this year?

Traveling with children.

Do you have any superstitions?

I believe in ghosts.

Would you rather know what the future holds or be surprised?

I would be scared to know what the future holds on this planet.

What palace in your everyday environment do you go to for inspiration?

Poetry and a small creek near my house. The reflections and shadows in the water provide endless inspiration.

What are some things you’re most passionate about outside of your practice?

I love cooking without a recipe and watching football.

What is your relationship with social media?

It’s complicated. Instagram probably changed the art world, offering opportunities to people who would never have had a chance to get into the art world. I have had great conversations with other artists on Instagram and even made some really close friends. But it’s time consuming and addictive. Also, I love scrolling through other people’s art, but I also find myself obsessing about the success of others, and lose sight of the main thing: making work that can’t be ignored.

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AucArt Pride

Pride Month 2023

We spoke with some of our artists to learn how they celebrate pride month, their LGBTQ+ role models, and some favourite traditions.

Every June, Pride events worldwide commemorate the Stonewall riots–protests held by the LGBTQ+ patrons of a small, downtown Manhattan bar of the same name after an unprompted police raid on June 1969. With queer violence still on the rise, art has the ability to serve as a medium to support, protest and uncover problematics and expose the works from queer artists whose lives are often excluded as part of the canon. With this in heart, we've spoken with a selection of artists from our roster to accompany them on their journey of exploration of identity through their art in celebration of Pride month, how they celebrate pride month, and some of their favourite traditions.

We spoke with some of our artists to learn how they celebrate pride month, their LGBTQ+ role models, and some favourite traditions.

Every June, Pride events worldwide commemorate the Stonewall riots–protests held by the LGBTQ+ patrons of a small, downtown Manhattan bar of the same name after an unprompted police raid on June 1969. With queer violence still on the rise, art has the ability to serve as a medium to support, protest and uncover problematics and expose the works from queer artists whose lives are often excluded as part of the canon. With this in heart, we've spoken with a selection of artists from our roster to accompany them on their journey of exploration of identity through their art in celebration of Pride month, how they celebrate pride month, and some of their favourite traditions.

What are your favorite pride traditions?

Just spending time with the people you choose to call your family and be grateful for them.

What does pride month mean to you?

Pride month has been so commercialized it is easy to lose track of its meaning. I think everybody gets what they want/need out of it. I choose to see it as progress regardless of all the profit corporations aim to make out of it. It means progress, and hope for much needed additional progress. The LGBTQIA+ community is not only the L, the G, and the B.

Who are some of your LGBTQIA+ role models?

The stonewall riot protesters did so much for what we have nowadays. I cannot even imagine what it was like at the time and I am blessed to be able to enjoy the fruit of their struggles today. There are many good role models nowadays, working on normalizing LGBTQIA+ everyday, but I think it’s important especially for young people to know why we are able to live out in the open today. Not that everyone is able to do that, that’s why we still need to continue progress.

How are you planning to celebrate pride month this year?

I am currently living in China, but soon moving away. For the first time in my life I was blessed with an amazing friend group of LGBTQIA+ people here. I am quite sad to leave them soon. I will celebrate this pride month with them, my chosen family.

What are your favorite pride traditions?

I love to go on pride marches if possible. The last pride march I went on was in Berlin and it was an amazing experience.

What does pride month mean to you?

Pride month is a moment for me to celebrate my identity as a gay man along with all the unique identities of my LGBTQIA+ siblings. It’s so important that we all come together as a community and celebrate together.

Who are some of your LGBTQIA+ role models?

The British artist, filmmaker and activist Derek Jarman (who I was lucky enough to meet a few times when he was alive) was and still is a huge role model for me. The French writer Jean Genet is also a source of fascination for me currently.

How are you planning to celebrate pride month this year?

I will be in Greece for pride month this year, living with my husband in our caravan in an olive grace in the Peloponnese. He will be volunteering at a local dog sanctuary and I will be painting and I think that will be a perfect way to celebrate pride month.

What are your favorite pride traditions?

Nothing beats celebrating with friends.

What does pride month mean to you?

Pride is power. Pride is about honouring the struggle and the sacrifices made by our queer forbearers. It’s about commemorating the achievements and the progress gained. It’s about being cognizant of the contemporary threats our community faces and it’s about resisting those who seek to oppress us.

With the start of summer heralding the beginning of Pride season I feel this renewed sense of joy and resilience, it reminds me that I belong. For those of us who spent a long time feeling like we were on the outside looking in, the visibility is vital; it’s seeing and it’s being seen.

Who are some of your LGBTQIA+ role models?

Amongst many my current favourite is Natalie Wynn. She has a ferocious intellect. Her video essays are immaculately presented and thoroughly researched and her analyses of complex social issues are piercing and nuanced. She is a disarming and perceptive debater, and uses her work to educate, entertain, raise awareness and inspire action. She’s hilarious and beautiful too aghhh.

How are you planning to celebrate pride month this year?

I love film – this year to mark his passing I’m going to have a viewing party of some Kenneth Anger films.

What are your favorite pride traditions?

Pride parade takes place in Hamburg every year. All participants meet in the street “Lange Reihe”. It is a great pleasure for me to experience how the Pride family meets, how a cosmos of its own is created full of exuberance, freedom and joy.

What does pride month mean to you?

Pride month reminds me to celebrate myself and my life.
That it is a gift to express yourself freely. That we all, as different as we are, can achieve a lot together.

Who are some of your LGBTQIA+ role models?

For me, everyone is a role model who has a big heart, who can question themselves and laugh at themselves. Who is open to others and ready to develop further.
It doesn’t matter which community he comes from.

How are you planning to celebrate pride month this year?

I haven’t planned anything now – I’ll let it come to me spontaneously.

What are your favorite pride traditions?

Simply getting together with friends, and the emphasis on that is one of my favourite Pride traditions. Many people can forget the importance of a “Queer Family” or “Pride Family”, it’s a place to feel safe and accepted as so many queer people feel discomfort in being themselves around their family of origin.

What does pride month mean to you?

Pride month means a lot to me, most importantly it’s about visibility. I find the commercialisation of Pride by various brands and businesses to be distracting and disheartening, there can even be appropriation going on. I love to see community LGBTQI+ organisations making events for young people. Pride month should be a reminder that Pride continues to be a Protest and a fight for human rights worldwide – not just a party in the West. Pride month reminds me to take a moment of gratitude towards the older queer generations who carved this path for me, and fought for my rights …

Who are some of your LGBTQIA+ role models?

My current role model is the visual artist Zanele Muholi. They make exquisite photographs of mainly black and marginalised queer people. Their work is a form of activism and protest. It is incredibly inspiring. I just saw their show in Paris this May.

How are you planning to celebrate pride month this year?

Dublin Pride aligns quite nicely with my birthday every year! So I’m throwing a party!

What does pride month mean to you?

Pride represents for me, a time of the year where being queer and different is celebrated and embraced. It’s a time of community as well as a shared sense of resistance to binary norms in our society.

Who are some of your LGBTQIA+ role models?

In the Arts, there’s a few artists that are black and queer I’ve looked to for guidance and inspiration. Artists like Ajamu X, Rotimi Fani Kayode, Lyle Ashton Harris, Marlon Riggs, Essex Hemphill to name a few. I’m constantly learning and drawing from these generational sources that in turn inform my work.

How are you planning to celebrate pride month this year?

By being in community with other black and queer artists and friends in London and beyond.

 

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In the studio with Amelia Badenoch

In the studio with Amelia Badenoch, a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores avenues of past and present moments and familiar surroundings through bringing her subconscious to the forefront. We met with Amelia to tell us more about growing up in London, her intrigue in the human figure, and developing her works from moments of darkness.

When did you first begin to see yourself as an artist?

During my time in Florence where I trained in the academic style of drawing and painting. (At The Florence Academy of Art). Although  it was not the style of painting I wanted to continue, I knew that my desire to keep exploring my potential through painting had been realized. 

Where are you from and what was your upbringing like?

I was born and brought up in London. However my mother is Indian and my father was Scottish. I grew up in a multicultural household and was always  given the support and nourishment to develop my artistic ability.  Coming from mixed race parents who come from opposite ends of the world gave me many avenues to explore and widened my understanding of how two cultures can influence your views, strengths and weaknesses. For example: meditation is a way that I develop my concepts as my work is based specifically on moments when i have been asleep i.e dreams and nightmares.

Paint us a picture of your artistic journey. What inspired you to first pursue, and then continue to practice?

Originally I was intrigued by the human figure, which led me to my time in Italy. However I felt a huge amount of constraint whilst being there. I felt the traditional influence of painting portraits and nudes from life dampened my creative side as I was following a particular method that demanded a specific approach to painting. Once leaving, the world became my oyster and my journey truly began. After spending time in India and working in a school for children that lived in extreme poverty; it was here I experienced the way that young girls and women were treated differently and the inequalities they currently face. This is also something I hope to return to and explore further one day. Moving on from this, Covid had a huge impact on me after losing someone close to me. I found the only place I could work through my grief was through painting. It was on the Turps Banana Studio Programme  I began to develop my particular style and process of painting. 

What’s the message of your work? 

My message is still somewhat developing. It is about the subconscious and how this really comes to life when you are asleep. We never really discuss these quick moments that happen when our eyes are closed. It can be something wonderful, or something even traumatic that sticks with you or recurs. I find this to be fascinating as we as humans are mostly not in sync with this part of our brains. Although it happens to us all, these dreams and nightmares I’ve found can speak volumes to how we process our daily lives and also our past traumas and experiences. 

I also find this to be a huge bodily experience. The moments of initially waking up from a sequence, be it happy or sad can have a big influence on the way your body feels and moves. 

Who or what are your greatest influences? 

The Buddhist monk Thich Naht Hanh’s teachings have given me a great source of comfort and inspiration throughout my meditative practice. 

Artists such as Helen Frankethaler, Louise Bourgeois, Lee Krasner and Monet are all huge influences in my work, aesthetically and conceptually.

An unexpected source of inspiration?

Although my work develops from moments when I am in pure darkness, nature is something I am continually drawn to. The afternoon light on a tree, rose petals that have died on the ground and the ever changing color of the sky.

What do you want people to take from your work when they view it? 

Personally, the most important takeaway is people are asking themselves questions. What is this place? Is it a reality or a fictitious moment? To me it’s not important to depict or label a specific ‘thing’. The viewer can have their own idea on what the painting represents. I want the viewer to move through the canvas with me, be it through a big brushstroke, or long line. If a figure is seen, I might not have seen it, or intentionally drawn/painted it. I thrive on the unexpected and as personal as these moments are for me, I want them to be personal to the viewer.

 What events in your life have mobilised change in your practice?

During the second lockdown I began working in watercolor. I enjoyed the peace and the action of pushing thin paint across paper, giving myself no particular object to paint.

 Wanting to finally work bigger, I found watered down acrylic paint had a beautiful consistency when loosely applied and I had not been able to achieve this with oils due to the surfaces I use. Abstraction became an obsession. 

What are your ideal conditions or catalyst for creating a “good” piece of work?

Conditions may vary during periods of working. Allowing my work to breathe is important to me as the business of the canvas can often become distracting. I find my most pure moments of painting are my initial brushstrokes.

Something in the future you hope to explore?

I have explored minimally with sculpture in the past, however it is something I have always been drawn to and feel I will be able to emphasize the physicalities and push the meaning of my work to a deeper level. 

Tell us about the inspiration behind one of your  works?

Getting high on a blue champagne sea is a representation of being metaphorically ‘frozen’. I often find myself in this state during the initial phases of falling asleep. Otherwise known as sleep paralysis. The experience itself is quite unpleasant, with my clenched fists and ringing in my ears- however the moments of diving in and out of the darkness gives me almost an outer body experience and it is something I am now consciously aware of and can almost control and bring myself back into my physical state of being.  

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In the studio with Diana Motta

In the studio with Brazilian artist Diana Motta. We met with Diana to tell us more about growing up in São Paulo, her practice as a spiritual influencer, and creating transcendental experiences through her works.

When did you first begin to see yourself as an artist?

Ever since I was born.

Where are you from and what was your upbringing like? 

I am from São Paulo, Brazil. My parents always encouraged me and my brother to be creative, we were always surrounded by art. Especially my grandparents from my mother’s side, they were art lovers, so they would always bring me and my brother to museums and galleries. I was definitely inspired by their love for art.

Paint us a picture of your artistic journey. What inspired you to first pursue, and then continue to practice artistic work?

Since I was very little I would love to be in my room by myself creating, inventing, and drawing. I would spend hours and hours by myself creating art. That would be my happy place. I would find peace and excitement in that. I used to take VHS tapes, I had many of those, and build houses and buildings from them. I knew I could be doing this for the rest of my life. 

What’s the message of your work? Where do they come from? 

Outside of the studio I am a spiritual influencer, practicing kabbalah and astrology, as well as being a columnist for Harpers Bazaar Brazil.  I translate my spiritual practice into my art as my own notion of cosmology; reflecting on the problem of finding a better and new way of balancing chaos with the day to day life. As an artist, researcher, spiritual guide and thinker, my paintings are more than just paintings. They become objects of connection.

Who are your greatest influences? 

Tarsila do Amaral, Joan Mitchell and Hilma Af Klint.

An unexpected source of inspiration?Fashion.

What do you want people to take from your work when they view it?

I want people to have a transcendental experience. 

What events in your life have mobilised change in your practise?

My spiritual studies, my spiritual practice, and the exchange with the people in my life that are related with my spiritual work. All of that informs and shapes my practice. 

What are your ideal conditions or catalyst for creating a “good” piece of work?

Ideal conditions and created with the ideal state of consciousness.

Tell us about the inspiration behind one of your works?

I am showing two bodies of work.  The first being my abstract expression paintings and the second one being my meditation paintings. I acknowledge that they are completely different from each other. 

The extreme positioning of chaotic and gentleness reflects my temperament. As I operate in between these worlds… two identities.

Outside of the studio I am a spiritual influencer, practicing kabbalah and astrology, as well as being a columnist for Harpers Bazaar Brazil.  The ambiguous relationship between the linear and the background in my paintings, furthers my goal to strive to create a dynamic, hybrid form that suggests the beauty and power  –  as well as the complicated questions of mysticism and the cosmic.  In other words, my own notion of cosmology, which is also central to some current artists that use ecological platforms; reflecting on the problem of finding a better and new way of balancing chaos with the natural world. As an artist, researcher, spiritual guide and thinker, my paintings are more than just paintings. They become objects of connection.

Also expressed is an interest around the intersection of new expressionism and new mysticisms. Utilising all manner of brushes, implements, and tools to create loosely controlled marks, I make gestures as a residue of language. My large-scale abstract paintings in particular, are created solely by gesture, exploring the liquid, the physical properties of paint and the accidental, chance-based by-products of a method based on living at risk. The act of painting, scraping, removing, are informed and inspired by the intuitive channeling of external forces, that I spontaneously capture with free and improvised movements like a dance. My work is about having control and then losing control. I stay close to the idea of drama.

In the second group of paintings, there is an emphasis on a spiritual atmosphere. Softness, vulnerability and openness. They stand alone. They are samplers of some aspect of spirituality. The paintings are meditative moments that seem to be necessary at the time.

Something in the future you hope to explore?

Many things!

Describe your work in three words: 

Spiritual, transcendental, physical.

What do you listen to while you work? 

Indie rock, rap,  pop, MPB and kabbalah lectures.

What is your favorite read? 

Interviews with Francis Bacon.

Best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Patience.

What makes you laugh?

I love funny people.

What makes you nervous?

Impatience.

Is there anything you wish you were asked more often?

I don’t know.

Is there anything you’ve recently tried for the first time? 

Etching.

Do you have any superstitions?

I have rituals.

Would you rather know what the future holds or be surprised?

Both!

What palace in your everyday environment do you go to for inspiration?

To the park.

What are some things you’re most passionate about outside of your practice?

Spirituality, astrology and fashion.

What is your relationship with social media?

It’s a circuit.

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In the studio with Erika Alonso

In the studio with Houston-based artist Erika Alonso. We met with Erika to tell us more about growing up in Southern California, finding inspiration through ballet, and her dream-like memories made of paint.

When did you first begin to see yourself as an artist?

I’ve always been artistic and wanted to be an artist since childhood, but it wasn’t until my early thirties that I started seeing myself as an ‘artist.’ Meeting myself as an artist in my early thirties was meant to be; I had already gotten to the point where my self-confidence outweighed the influence of others’ criticisms. Also, my mindset changed: if I’m making art daily, I am an artist. That makes sense to me, so that’s what I do, and now I can call myself an artist without reservation.

Where are you from and what was your upbringing like?

I grew up with my parents and two siblings in southern California, a place that often inspires my landscape-like abstracted paintings. We moved to South Texas when I was 10 and again to Houston when I was 14. My upbringing did not encourage me to pursue artistic endeavors seriously. Art was a hobby. Sure, some artists make a living off of creating their artwork, but those are few and far between—and it’s more likely that I would be a “starving artist,” and they didn’t want that for me!

After high school, I wanted to attend art school, but my parents encouraged me to get a business degree. In retrospect, I’m happy they did—I’ve found that my education and work experiences strengthen me as an artist. Artists have to make their art and run a business. In addition to painting, I can build my own website, install vinyl lettering for exhibitions, plan and manage projects, write successful grant proposals, and more.

Another thing that has impacted my work is how I view work. My father’s family immigrated to the United States and achieved the American Dream through hard work and dedication. I grew up with this mindset that working hard is a virtue in itself and, in time, will bring about success. This mindset is my foundation for making art: work, work!

Paint us a picture of your artistic journey. What inspired you first to pursue art and then continue to practice creative work? 

I’m a contemporary abstract artist working and living in Houston, Texas. While I’ve always made art, I committed to my practice around 2015. This commitment was ignited by late-20s existential dread and continued thanks to my partner’s encouragement and emotional support. As a self-taught artist, I spent quite a few years learning how to make art: the methods, mediums, materials, color theory, etc. Then, in 2018, I focused on what I wanted to paint. By mid-2019, I had found my style—fantastical and curious watercolor paintings—and moved into my first art studio. By 2021, I had taught myself to paint in oils and acrylics and started working large-scale.

What’s the message of your work? Where do they come from?

My most recent works are an experiment with abstracting landscapes and figures in a way that conveys a dream-like memory made of paint. These whimsical, abstract-figurative landscape paintings are meant to capture a moment in all of its fleetingness—the movement and rush and whirl of it.
I like to describe my work as an escape from reality: my paintings are places I’d like to spend my time—places that are indeterminate, dynamic, stimulating, enchanting, and complex.

Who are your greatest influences?

My current influences can be seen plainly in my work: I’m inspired by Willem de Kooning and his use of charcoal and blending of unconventional materials, as well as his idea of a “slipping glimpser”; Marc Chagall’s whimsical, dreamlike paintings; Cecily Brown’s fractured and whirring brushstrokes; and Julie Mehtru’s mark-making. Most recently, Ruth Asawa’s tied-wire sculptures influenced me to explore wire sculpture. I’m also influenced by artists from other disciplines, like singer-songwriter Nick Cave and the late musician-poet David Berman.

An unexpected source of inspiration?

I’ve found that ballet is very inspiring! I think it’s something to do with storytelling through movement and rhythm. Over time, I’ve come to believe that everything I see, hear, and experience inspires my art somehow.

What do you want people to take from your work when they view it?

I want my work to inspire viewers to engage their imagination to come to their own conclusions. I actively try not to think about the viewer while painting because I am filled with doubt and hesitation when I do. The process is for me; what results is for the viewer.

What are your ideal conditions or catalyst for creating a ‘good‘ piece of work?

The only difference between a good and bad painting is a feeling. That feeling is what creates the ideal conditions. I have to feel as if I am completely free of responsibilities; I don’t have to be anywhere, meet anyone, or do anything other than make art. I do my best work alone; I cannot be tasked with self-awareness or consideration for others. I have to be free to do whatever I want. If I can feel this way, it brings about an extended daydream, maybe similar to what others call a flow state. The less I think, the better the outcome. Time and again, I’ve found that my best paintings are the ones that paint themselves.

Tell us about the inspiration behind one of your paintings.

Land(e)scape 02 (2022) is reminiscent of a white-sand beach. It has narratives superimposed onto the seascape and was inspired by the stories of three older women who immigrated to the United States from Latin America when they were younger. I sat down with them and recorded oral histories to capture their memories of their homeland and their experience coming to the United States, and I listened to their recorded stories as I painted.

Something in the future you hope to explore?

In the future, I’d like to explore how I can achieve my watercolor aesthetic on a large scale. With watercolor, timing is everything, and I have to work very quickly—a difficult thing to do when working on larger pieces.

What events in your life have mobilized change in your practice & aesthetic?

Getting an art studio made a big difference in my work. I finally had the space and isolation required to make great paintings. My studio allows me to experiment with different mediums and to work larger than I was able to before. As a result, my art has evolved in complexity and confidence.

Describe your work in three words:

Distinct, Painterly, Movement.

What do you listen to while you work? Is music important to your art?

I almost always listen to music while painting. I usually put one album on repeat for many weeks before switching to something else.

What is your favorite read?

Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art

Best piece of advice you’ve ever received (any quotes or mantras you particularly connect with)?

The Joy of Painting episode featuring guest painter Ben Stahl—Stahl offers gems of wisdom throughout.

What makes you laugh?

Clever jokes. And watching YT videos of cats doing silly cat things.

What makes you nervous?

What doesn’t make me nervous?!

Is there anything you wish you were asked more often?

How does it feel to be such a famous artist? 🤠💀

Is there anything you’ve recently tried for the first time? 

I recently stayed in West Texas for a short artist residency; this was my first residency and it was an adventure!

Is there anything you’ve been hesitant to try in the past but you’d like to this year?

I don’t hesitate too much when it comes to trying new things.

Do you have any superstitions?

The evil eye (el mal de ojo) is real, and I work hard to keep it and all negative vibes out of my studio.

Would you rather know what the future holds or be surprised?

I don’t like surprises, tell me about my future!

What place in your everyday environment do you go to for inspiration?

I like going to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Menil. I especially like to go to the Rothko Chapel to think in silence.

What are some things you’re most passionate about outside of your practice?

Social justice work and animal advocacy

What is your relationship with social media?

The one thing that I can bring to social media that is unique is my art; everything else is just adding to the noise. So I post about my art and little else.

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In the studio with Katherine Giordano

In the studio with Boston-based artist Katherine Giordano. We met with Katherine to tell us more about growing up in the suburbs, her relationship with the canvas, and her unexpected source of inspiration.

When did you first begin to see yourself as an artist? 

After the 45th United States Presidential Election, I began seeing myself as an artist in the spring  of 2016. After realizing the results, it was easy to feel voiceless about the concerns so many  Americans had in terms of the future of the country. My art practice gave me a platform to  visually voice these concerns and involve myself in a supportive space amongst other individuals  who shared the same fears. Nasty Woman Exhibitions started a movement throughout the United  States to raise money for various organizations supporting marginalized persons. I am grateful to  have been a part of multiple shows with my work. I have met many incredible people and  learned so much about the art industry through this trivial time attempting to make something  positive out of a hostile political situation. 

Where are you from and what was your upbringing like? How has this impacted your work? 

I grew up in the suburbs right outside of Boston. My upbringing felt safe yet sheltered, coming  from a generally quiet area and a small town. My family is extremely close, so growing up in the  same surrounding as my extended relatives was a privilege. In regards to this, as I became older  and went off to college, I always wanted to learn more about the world and experience so much  more outside of my community. I studied abroad in Florence, where I had the opportunity to  travel around Europe and eventually moved to England for my Master’s course at Goldsmiths.  My upbringing has impacted my work because even though I came from a small town, I never  wanted to feel like my voice had to be small. It pushed me to want to be myself authentically,  voice my concerns in my art practice, and see outside my community. 

Paint us a picture of your artistic journey. What inspired you to first pursue, and then  continue to practice, artistic work? Was there a pivotal moment when you felt you were on  the right track? 

When I was in my college courses studying painting, politics inspired me to think critically about  what I was making and how I wanted to display my voice in my visual work. At a young age  learning about the technical components of painting, I also found it essential to extract my  research from the news and media, learn about it, and then paint about it. Doing politically  charged work energized me to keep me on track, to continue painting and learning about the  complexity of the world around me. 

What’s the message of your work? Where do they come from?  How would you describe your aesthetic? 

I have an obsession with rendering skin tone, it is hard to explain why, but I love the ability to  render something that feels fleshy and raw. In addition, the message of my work seems to fit into  the lens of empowerment in reclaiming agency that manifests in the female form. I also like to  include satire in my work, using objects as metaphors. 

Who/what are your greatest influences?

My most significant influences on painters are Chloe Wise, John Currin, Issy Wood, Jenna  Gribbon, etc. I could go on. I love going to painting shows and seeing the hand’s intimacy of the  artist. As I mentioned above, I have this obsession with the rendering of flesh, so seeing how  others portray fragments of that in their own work inspires my own practice. 

An unexpected source of inspiration? 

Ironically working as a bartender has been a source of inspiration. Working in your studio can be  quite isolating, especially when you’re not attached to an academic institution. The hospitality  industry has been such a positive experience for me in terms of meeting so many different kinds  of people that you usually wouldn’t come across and converse with about various topics. I have  learned a lot about work ethic and being thrown into high-volume stressful situations. I have  made some lifelong friends through hospitality and the constant social aspect of this job. Just  learning about others has inspired my work.

What do you want people to take from your work when they view it? Do you have the  audience consciously in mind when you are creating? 

I never want to assume how people will read or view my work. As an artist, I intend to  investigate a topic, visually represent that to the best of my ability, and allow my audience to  develop their own opinions. Of course, the audience is always in mind because I believe that  accessibility in my art practice is considered, but what I expect from my audience is just for them  to enjoy what I have made and give them the agency to view my work how they see fit. 

What events in your life have mobilised change in your practise/aesthetic? How has your art  evolved? Do you experiment? 

I haven’t lived in one place for more than a year over the past five years. With that being said,  I’ve so many new incredible people, artists and non-artists alike. So, getting feedback and the  opportunity to talk to so many different people about my work has pushed me on what I am  creating and critically analyzing why I am making it. Goldsmiths, especially, has been such a  profound experience in terms of the cohort I have the privilege to be a part of and see how others  operate in their practice to then reflect on my own. 

What are your ideal conditions or catalyst for creating a “good” piece of work? 

This is a tricky question, I think “good piece of work” is a subjective phrase. Personally, I never  feel any of my paintings are finished, so it is hard for me to stop and consider something good or  done. But, on the other hand, I just love to create, so sometimes, when I put something away and  move on from it, I can revisit a painting and see if I am satisfied with a fresh set of eyes.

Tell us about the inspiration behind one of your works? 

Nasty Women was created as direct commentary to when Donald Trump referred to Hilary  Clinton as a Nasty Woman during one of their debates. Politics aside, the feeling I got from him belittling a woman with such crude, and offensive language inspired me to reclaim some form of  agency from it. The model’s gaze is directly engaged with the viewer, seated comfortably,  grotesquely eating Cheetos. The power dynamic in scale is directly meant to be “eating his words”. We cannot control how others treat us, but I wanted to manifest in this work to rise from  derogatory language and not tolerate it. 

Something in the future you hope to explore? 

This list could go on. At the age of 26 I hope I have a lifetime of new and exciting things to  explore in my art practice and just life in general.  

Describe your work in three words: 

Fleshy, Charged, Ironic  

What do you listen to while you work? Is music important to your art? 

Honestly so many things, from rap music, podcasts, DJ sets, documentaries it depends what  mood I am in. Sometimes I just want to listen to someone else talk other times I need high  energy music to push through a session.  

What is your favorite read? 

Currently Glitch Feminism by Legacy Russel. It is an incredible book that speaks to the  contemporary discourse of intersectional feminism and the digital space online.  

Best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Truly anything my mom says when I need advice on something. She is the most grounded and  supportive person I know.  

What makes you laugh?

Luckily my friends, I am fortunate to be surrounded by so many great people in my life. 

What makes you nervous? 

The realities of the world around us, it is hard to have a positive outlook on society sometimes  when watching the news.  

Is there anything you wish you were asked more often? 

Want to go on a holiday? 

Is there anything you’ve recently tried for the first time? 

Stretching my own large scale canvases instead of purchasing pre-stretched. My hands hurt but it  feels more rewarding.  

Is there anything you’ve been hesitant to try in the past but you’d like to this year? Maybe doing some ceramics, I typically just work in 2D mediums.  

Do you have any superstitions? 

Yes, coming from Italian heritage, culturally we are full of superstitions. I wear specific jewelry  that has been passed down through my family as a form of protection.  

Would you rather know what the future holds or be surprised? 

I have too many questions about the future if I think about it too much, sometimes ignorance is  bliss.  

What place in your everyday environment do you go to for inspiration? 

Probably my studio, I have a large cohort at Goldsmiths so it is always activated with friends and  critical conversations.  

What are some things you’re most passionate about outside of your practice? 

I really enjoy going to the gym, I think working out has been a great way for me to ground  myself in my daily life to stay healthy and happy.  

What is your relationship with social media? 

Can’t live with it but can’t live without it.

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This Butterfly We Tried to Anaesthetize

curated by Sonny hall
This Butterfly We Tried to Anaesthetize

Leading up to the moment where this show found its devoted plate to be plated on, to be starkly admired from and then savagely and honestly digested off of. I found myself obsessing violently about my kitchen and the fact it needed a large refurbishment. I had arrived at the problem. A problem that began in my head and then frighteningly composed a rather fruitful and telling existence, outside of me. In the cold water, in the silence of the kitchen gas, in the breeze that thrusted through my cracked kitchen windows, in the exact and cutting motion of my knife each morning when illustrating the onions, peppers and tomatoes that compliment my morning’s signature dish, in the obsessive compulsive disorder that graces me with such an enchanted and confident sequence to pleasantly manipulate each agonizing moment of each tempestuous day, in the absolute flux, in the non-transferable feeling that is naked and invisible and sits with me for breakfast every morning, uninvited. In a swirl of dread, In a trickle of contentment, in all that typifies one sensation in one vessel, that is me. And with that, in the world that I greet to leave, each day. Only to meet again in the next moment. This problem gave life to me, in a moment of delusional racketeering of self. Then to others, then to self, then others again. All divided, well portioned, liquidized, in a huge bowl I found in my kitchen. I owned and developed a mixture that I became and controlled all at once. I stirred it while being stirred, spat in, admired, crucified, mixed with love then hate then love, again. Whipped into a ghastly awareness, full of true sentient. 

By using any other technique or being in any other place with any less or more compulsive compression laid out into my heart and spirit, would have only been true to what I could not have handed to myself, misplacing the heart of the problem, misplacing my very actuality. 

The procedure meant everything. And we all know every procedure exercised within the principles of truth will always display complications. The complications and trials of my problem’s responsibility was where the true and shiny spectacles breathed unapologetically. Calling for nothing but a bamboozled being to the issued line of action. This is where the procedure’s potential held its definition in shimmer and shadow. This is where the butterfly rids the chrysalis, where crystalized triumph and disastrous potential are all catered for, by a confident sequence that is sprinkled then fueled by precise tampering. 

This sequence came with truth and nothing else. The probable outcome of the untangling of this muddle made it’s intentions known, initially in the swelling of my bowels. It was in this moment, when I truly gauged the scope for loss of self and dramatic discovery and my grand opportunity to germinate my world, healthily in one combustible instant. This instant came as a daggering feeling of unrest. A feeling that brang notice to the fact I was carrying all the earth’s soil in my stomach, as if I had swallowed my own mixture, as if I had eaten every matter in my kitchen’s interior while neglecting the food in the fridge, as if I had become too excited for life and dread ridden all at once. When noticing this, that is when I discovered the gas leak in my kitchen. The problem was established.  Like any grand discovery, soon after, I found myself in the hornet’s nest, my senses and my reasoning absolutely covered by a significant uncovering.  Uncoiling it from it’s true nucleus. The problem that became my mission transgressed into a defeat and a victory all at once. There and then came the queen’s succulent honey. Then the stings. Then the bayonetting stings. Then the sweetness and so forth.

This personal experience made me think of the process one has to bear in order to seek out the formidable all defining answers. The real notation that I took from this and swallowed up wholly, like a prescription from my chemist, was that no answer can solely be defined. And that the counterparts and intricacies within the labyrinth of the core problem are the true noteworthy contributors to the entire message and the entire answer you are looking to receive. But by receiving it and putting it in your pocket and thinking you have the real solution to your problem would be absolute insanity. It would be like licking a fool’s achilles heel in hope for enlightenment. You would never do such a thing. In order to reap the advantages of possessing an answer you have to look far into the rectum before cleaning it. You have to look in the places of dishevelment, in a single flower’s full development, in the unpolished conditions that actual flare can naturally exist, in confusion, in the source of understanding and the origin of vacancy. Only then, can you start to expect to understand the problem. Then the answer. Then you can unwrap the present and receive the miniscule diamonds that are embedded in the spine of the fight for understanding.

This sinuous and sacrificial process exists in each artist that I chose for this show. In choosing everyone, I knew the selection of artists had to be people I knew in some way intimately and truthfully. I knew that everyone involved had to conduct themselves through continual honourings of veracity to self and then the world. Their work being the aftermath of their discoverings and impulses. This mob of humans know of a personalized methodical countermeasure to the human condition in many designs, silhouettes and abrasions. By probing then laying out such a category, I was able to form a faith in a disjointed but natural unity that these artists greatly symbolize. Unified in their discrete solitary missions as creators and instigators of expression and fine utterings and unified together in the framework of each other’s shared values and blended obversitys that only interest the gamut of truth and it’s herculean abilities. This is the bonding answer to my dislocated problem. 

Alexander James

Jack Laver

Adrian Schachter

Aidan Wallace

Bella Newman

Nicole Della Costa

Georgie Sommerville

Kesewa Aboah

Machine Operated

What draws you to an artist?

When they want to communicate in a proper way. Proper, being; honest and unapologetic. I want to feel and see why they are taking action in offering a gesture of expression .... Desperation, really and truly.

AucArt Selections

The selection of artists I have chosen are all people I appreciate in their character as well as their works. I feel as if there is a parallel with each artist, in how their work complements their character and vice versa. This is important to me because it outlines a truthful act in the heart of their output. 

The show is all about truth and where truth comes from, the need to harbour it correctly and the ways to go about doing so. It is a boundless expedition for each and every human. And with this I find connecting to each other on this basis is the utmost important way to go. Yet action has to be made to arrive at this ultimatum

 But in my eyes I could never establish this practice, if you like, to be entirely and ultimately ultimate, ever. It is a constant back and forth, between finding truth, owning it and showing it. The bottom line is communication and I thought by choosing these artists it would bring about the perfect mixture of declarations and confessions of real feelings, that can be communicated in whatever way the artist chooses to, truthful to each individual. 

 

1993, uk

Triple Vision, 2020

42 x 30 cm

Acrylic on paper

Facetime Unavailable, 2020

42 x 30 cm

Acrylic on paper

Sweet Revenge, 2020

42 x 30 cm

Acrylic on paper

Alexander James patches elements of the past, the present and the pre-empted future through his practice. His works look to reflectively tell a story about time, manifesting characters and scenarios triggered from childhood memories, projecting facets of past encounters into present existence. Acting as a diary for the audience, Alexander attempts to showcase works on paper documenting his experiences or thoughts, which are later combined and expanded to create the wider narrative, weaving between mediums of digital collage, paint and fabrics. Alexander lives and works in London, UK.

1998, uk

Caves, 2020

42 x 60 cm

Mixed media on paper mounted on wood canvas

Aerial View, 2020

60 x 84 cm

Mixed media on paper mounted on canvas

Trodden Path, 2020

42 x 60 cm

Mixed media on paper mounted on canvas

Broken Fences, 2020

42 x 60 cm

Mixed media on paper mounted on canvas

Osseus, 2020

42 x 60 cm

Mono-print on paper

Stages of Silence, 2020

61 x 91 cm

Acrylic on canvas

Ghosts That Were Given, 2020

40 x 60 cm

Oil and acrylic on canvas

Tired Armour, 2020

40 x 60 cm

Acrylic on canvas

Jack Laver is an artist and musician, whose practice often works within printmaking and painting. Jack explores the fringes of these mediums, creating experimental works that utilise techniques commonly perceived as errors to create images. His work communicates an obscured view of the world that we live in, adapting everyday scenes and objects to make strange of the mundane. Jack lives and works in London, UK.

1996, spain

Untitled, 2020

10 x 14 cm

Pen on paper

Untitled, 2020

122 x 153 cm

Oil pastel on paper

Spoonfed, 2020

42 x 59.4 cm

Pastel and coloured pencils on paper

Lamentation After Giotto, 2020

29 x 42 cm

Oil pastels on paper

Throughout art school, Adrian Schachter was taught to question everything. Not to accept anything as given. As a result, Adrian’s developed a kind of idealistic cynicism, moving him to analyze all that he encounters, searching out hypocrisies and inconsistencies. When applied to the world of images, Adrian was bombarded with an online presence since childhood, along with the rest of his generation. There was an appetite for digesting data in every form that was nothing less than voracious. Yet, the more diverse and psychologically charged the information was, the more Adrian became increasingly numbed and detached. While trying to elaborate this though his practice, Adrian found that pairing disparate but somehow tangentially related imagery created unintended relationships more profound and unexpected than when they existed on their own. In the process of mining for content that gets translated into his paintings, Adrian teases out and highlights connections that transform the way the viewer perceives the underlying material, creating new and unforeseen narratives in the process. Adrian lives and works in London, UK.

1994, usa

TMIHNFM_SF1_G, 2020

41 x 51 cm

Oil, archival paper, and tape on canvas

CHRONOTOPE_27, 2020

100 x 100 cm

Oil, house paint, and carbon copy on canvas

UNTITLED_IMPRESSION_1, 2020

110 x 100 cm

Acrylic, ink, and archived sand paper on linen

ASFXMAFE, 2020

60 x 70 cm

Oil, charcoal, resin, silver pigment on fish glue reversed canvas

ISAFBYMN_7, 2020

41 x 51 cm

Oil, charcoal, resin, silver pigment on fish glue reversed canvas

IALLT.35, 2020

70 x 70 cm

Thread, rope, acrylic and house paint on wool

EMBRYNCEMBERS, 2020

55 x 75 cm

Thread, rope, acrylic, and house paint on wool

TRETTLOTHTMS_LEAD_3_R, 2020

30 x 24 cm

Expired elastomeric paint with polymer medium, ink, and archival paper on canvas
 

Aidan Wallace is an American artist currently based in Europe who works in a large variety of media including primarily painting, collage, sculpture, and performance. Often his work can be seen as an accumulation and collision of these techniques and materials. The objective, and underlying approach, is firstly to attempt at eradicating assurance with the material and perceivable composition. His work is in constant pursuit of an unattainable order through an alchemical process and relationship to surface. This transgressive nature allows the expression of the artwork-as-experiment to enter a realm of textural confrontation with any preconceived understanding of the codical qualities found within. Aidan lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

1999, uSA

Enderman and Her Cousin Kitty – Journal Page Diptych, 2020

25.5 x 18 cm

Inkjet and watercolour on paper

My Mom is the Only Person in this World, 2017

25.5 x 18 cm

Inkjet and watercolour on paper

My Friend Like a Petal, 2020

25.5 x 18 cm

Inkjet and watercolour on paper

Louise is not Afraid of Anything, 2020

25.5 x 18 cm

Inkjet and watercolour on paper

Mohair Dewdrop Bonnet, 2020

122 x 153 cm

Crocheted lace weight 100% mohair

Bella Newman is an American visual artists whose practice comes from a desire to position herself on the boundaries of reality. Her works reflect ideas of other realms, surrounded by mystical beings and folkloric entities, manifested through a fixation on nature and the human condition. Through film and photography, Bella combines the use of literature and imagery to recontextualize observations of a deepened story. She is influenced by her upbringing in a rural suburban town in, depicting the years where her artistic practice had developed a sense of “selfhood” conjured throughout her works. Bella lives and works in Pennsylvania, USA.

1992, brazil

Funky, 2020

22 x 28 cm

Ink and Pigment in Silica Flat on paper

Conduct, 2020

22 x 28 cm

Ink and Pigment in Silica Flat on paper

Squeeze, 2020

22 x 28 cm

Ink and Pigment in Silica Flat on paper

Wired Heart I, 2020

22 x 28 cm

Mixed media on paper

Wired Heart II, 2020

22 x 28 cm

Mixed media on paper

A Charm, A Single Charm Is Doubtful, 2017

76 x 102 cm

Acrylic on canvas

A Charm, A Single Charm Is Doubtful, 2017

122 x 122 cm

Acrylic on canvas

A Charm, A Single Charm Is Doubtful, 2017

102 x 152 cm

Acrylic on canvas

Nicole Della Costa, is an artist and poet born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She works primarily in video, painting and poetry. Nicole has published two poetry collections and is releasing her next book As Serious as a Hiccup published by Pois é in Spring. 

Trafalgar Square, 2020

102 x 102 cm

Oil on canvas

Three Women With Parcels, 2020

41 x 41 cm

Oil on canvas

Untitled, 2020

41 x 41 cm

Oil on canvas

Untitled, 2020

76 x 76 cm

Oil and acrylic on canvas

Untitled, 2020

76 x 76 cm

Oil pastel on canvas

Venus in Boots, 2020

152.5 x 76 cm

Oil pastel on canvas

Untitled, 2020

76 x 61 cm

Oil pastel on canvas

Dogfight, 2020

102 x 76 cm

Oil on canvas

A Good Idea, 2020

122 x 91.5 cm

Oil pastel on canvas

Georgie Sommerville looks into the fluidity of moving image and the idea of storytelling through her artistic practice. Through taking early 20th century photographs of the East End, Georgie juxtaposes imageries through bright colours and bold line, creating abstract shape through silhouettes and shadow. Georgie scrapes away the oil off of the canvas, revealing the earliest marks and simplest forms. Instead of giving these figures an obvious identity, she focuses on silhouettes and shadows where faces and landscapes blend together. Georgie lives and works in London, UK.

1994, uk

Waterworks 1, 2020

103 x 67 cm

Dry pigment and pouring medium on paper

Waterworks 2, 2020

103 x 67 cm

Dry pigment and pouring medium on paper

Waterworks 3, 2020

103 x 67 cm

Dry pigment and pouring medium on paper

Waterworks 4, 2020

103 x 67 cm

Dry pigment and pouring medium on paper

Kesewa Aboah is a Ghanaian British artist based in London. She completed a BA in fine arts at the School of Visual Arts, New York in 2017. Following her move back to the UK after the completion of her studies Aboah has taken part in artist residency programs in Mexico City, Iceland and Kenya. Kesewa’s practice has a heavy focus on process; modernizing traditional techniques of embroidery and body imprinting to create a bold, colorful and sometimes haunting version of the 20th century tapestry. Her unconventional use of thread and paper relinquishes her control of the way in which the bodies take form. Allowing each work a personal narrative in both physicality and concept. Hours of untamed precision distorts her figures, realigns their limbs, rebirths their body, leaving a fragmented tribute to what once was. Kesewa lives and works in London, UK.

1997, uk

Incandecent, 2020

20 x 20 cm

Photographic negatives

B22, 2020

25.5 x 30.5 cm

Photography with hand-written text

E27, 2020

25.5 x 30.5 cm

Photography with hand-written text

GU10, 2020

25.5 x 30.5 cm

Photography with hand-written text

Machine Operated is a creative partnership between visual artists Josh Hercules and Nathan Taylor. Josh and Nathan live and work in London, UK.

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Petra Cortright Highlights

This month we asked Petra Cortright to select her favourite artists from AucArt. Nine of our most promising artists showcase their work in a range of mediums from works on paper to canvas.

Lucy Ralph

B Chehayeb

Mateusz von Motz

Khaleb Brooks

Oriele Steiner

Sarah Cunningham

Yulia Iosilzon

Agata Treccani

Ala Jazayeri

1994, uk

Lucy is a contemporary visual artist whose subtle compositions explore the body’s delicacy and resilience. At the age of 15 Lucy underwent total reconstruction and fusion of the spine which, although not disabling, has influenced many aspects of her life. This, as well as the complicated medical climate, continues to spur her interest with health and its exploration through art. 

A Charm, A Single Charm Is Doubtful, 2017

122 x 153 cm

Acrylic on canvas

£2,700

I was attracted to this because of the composition and I love the domestic space it evokes. The subtleness of the figure is very beautiful.

1990, usa

B  is a contemporary artist whose practice closely orbits themes of memory, identity and time. Her recent works confront the unreliability of memory and transfiguration, induced by nostalgia and often characterised by her gestural abstractions.

I was drawn to a lot of pieces by this artist and decided on this one. Whilst it’s an abstract selection, I think the movement and mood stir up something floral and wonderful. I’m a big fan.

Garage Sale Money for Sushi, 2020

41 x 51 cm

Oil on panel

£700

1994, uk

Mateusz is a Polish-German artist whose practice confronts ideas of memory, space, and deconstruction. His work combines architectural and natural forms, inspired by the concept of hyperreality. He continually explores the use of materiality, light, and technology through his practice.

Planting Fruits, 2019

150 x 112 cm

Oil and acrylic on canvas

£3,600

This has the floral “mood” that I spoke of. Very fun and playful.

 

1991, usa

Khaleb is a multi-disciplinary artist and researcher exploring blackness, transness and collective memory. Through painting, performance and video, his latest works blur the lines between history and future in an attempt to explore the possibilities inherent in liminal spaces. A liminal space is in between worlds, dislocation, without rights, non- being. By meshing the black queer figure with surreal environments in paintings and entering transcendental states in performance, he forces his audience to confront the literal and social death of black trans people globally. 

This is a stunning piece, it’s haunting and seductive. A mermaid on a bed is “flowers”, I don’t care if anyone says otherwise. Also the wallpaper pattern is floral-esque so there you go.

 

Tryna Make a Way Out of No Way, 2020

153 x 107 cm

Acrylic on canvas

£1,200

1993, uk

Oriele is a British painter whose work involves a wide array of techniques and processes. She uses colour and light as her principal means of experimentation and is particularly interested in the evocation of emotion through colour. Her works often comprise vivid dreamscapes inhabited by figures drawn from photography and the imagination. 

Snappy Club, 2019

21 x 30 cm

Oil pastel on paper

£400

This is like Outsider art meets Matisse and I hold both those things very dear, so I was drawn to this.

1993, uk

Sarah  is a contemporary visual artist who explores the way in which organic patterns and textures resonate through the use of oil paint and natural pigments. She investigates both the presence of the flora and foliage that can be found within a landscape – as well as how the plants that inhabit these scenes can describe the habitats they are a part of. 

This is my favourite piece – it’s enchanting. You can sit with it for a while and it unfolds in a lovely way. A lot of times my judgement for art is, would I hang this in my home? The answer on this is yes, yes, yes.

Twilight Zone 2019

50 x 40 cm

Oil on canvas

£950

1992, russia

Yulia is a London-based artist whose large-scale works  draw inspiration from children’s illustration, fashion and theatre to posit fragmentary narratives. An initial readability in her work is thrown into question by the persistent use of techniques which serve to interrupt the image and break down earlier impressions of visual plenitude. Yulia’s recent body of works explore the artist’s own deployment of burlesque, the grotesque, irony and humour in images.

Office Gossip, 2019

120 x 95 cm

Oil on transparent fabric

£2,800

Another Matisse vibe, but hey there is nothing bad about being compared to a great artist! The movement and colour is gorgeous. I also really enjoyed her other works as well, the birds are brilliant and I almost chose one of those instead of this, anything would have worked with my theme, she has a lovely style.

 

1995, italy

Agata is a recently graduated artist whose practice explores contemporary theories of visual language fed by social-contemporary dynamics. Every brand, marketing action or story on instagram is an element of study and a possible creation tool like a pencil on a sheet of paper. Agata materialises this theory through her recent paintings, videos and new media with differing works revolving around unconventional methods exploiting the same research object “contemporaneity”.

The palm trees are flowering outside of my studio window as I type this on the edge of Los Angeles. I have a serious affection for palm tree art. The cell phone suggestion is chic. It’s dreamy and a little bit doomy and that balance keeps it from being saccharine.

 

Natural Celltower (SARIBUS), 2019

70 x 50 cm

Acrylic on canvas

£1,550

1981, iran

Ala is a contemporary Iranian artist who was born 3 years after the Iranian Revolution and 1 year after the onset of the Iran-Iraq War. The inspiration for her work comes from her personal experiences, often exploring the relationship between place, memory, and dislocation in relation to the emotional and affective investments they provoke and generate. 

The Traces of Leaves, 2019

100 x 165 cm

Oil on canvas

£2,400

This piece is so elegant. This was another artist where a number of works could have been selected – the way she works with rooms and dimensions is lovely and the color palette is opulent.

 

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Marco Galvan Highlights

This month we spoke to Marco Galvan,  AucArt’s in house curator, to select his favourite artists from AucArt. Eight of our most promising artists showcase their work in a range of mediums from paint, sculpture and design.

Peter Doyle (b. 1992, Irish) is a mixed-media artist known for his distinctly vibrant, acrylic figurative paintings. Doyle’s paintings possess a charming intimacy in their formal naivity driven by a voyeuristic restlessness to interpret the quick observations of everyday life whilst demonstrating his love of humdrum. Doyle see himself as a curious outsider, who takes pleasure in capturing rare instances of quiet or the daily mundane of his subjects – finding beauty and inspiration by the ways in which someone is sitting on the bus, on a chair or waiting in line. Peter lives and works in London, UK.

The Black Sheep, 2020

Acrylic on canvas
110 x 70 cm
£2,000

Self Portrait, 2020

Acrylic on canvas
110 x 70 cm
£2,000

Fish & Rain, 2020

Acrylic on canvas
15 x 30 cm
£450

Twins in Havana, 2019

Acrylic on canvas
122 x 152 cm
£2,500

Joseph Justus (b. 1982, USA) is a contemporary American artist whose works reimagine the physical and conceptual landscapes that make up the city. Drawing inspiration from the urban fabric and the human body, his paintings experiment with surfaces that act as lenses or x-rays steadily moving in and out of plane. Joseph lives and works in Los Angeles.

Untitled, 2020

Acrylic on canvas
183 x 122 cm
£2,000

Untitled (A Canticle), 2020

Acrylic on canvas
183 x 122 cm
£2,400

Untitled (Dream I), 2020

Acrylic on canvas
183 x 122 cm
£2,200

Untitled (Dream III), 2020

Acrylic on canvas
183 x 122 cm
£2,200

Jonathan Small (b.1994, USA) explores through his current artistic practice a reimagined image of the folded fan through modern techniques found in practices of sculpture, drawing and engraving. Referencing his Japanese heritage, Jonathan depicts scenarios of desire, love and violence through his works that are often otherwise difficult to express. Used to convey hidden messages within their designs, ancient Japanese fans represent devices of communication to hide one’s true emotion from society. Once opened, the fan becomes a motif of deception, a marker of a human instinct to oscillate between hiding and revealing our own image. By reimagining the form and function of folding fans, Jonathan challenges their associative qualities as delicate or flamboyant items and re-establishes them as weapons of defence. His works behave differently dependent on their surroundings and implicate their audience in a self-reflective environment. Jonathan lives and works in LA, USA.

Fan IX, 2018

Laser-cut mirror perspex and steel
53.5 x 105 x 8 cm
£2,300

Fan X (Faye), 2018

Laser-cut perspex, steel, and pigment dye
53.5 x 105 x 8 cm
£2,300

View Marco’s full interview with AucArt where he tells us about growing up in Italy, the exhibition that changed the course of his career and finally his latest guilty pleasure.

I think it’s very important for a curator to have an interest for what he/she may not understand. To transform a moment of ignorance or fear into excitement and curiosity, a willingness to learn, let's say.

British artist Alba Hodsoll (b.1990, UK) explores sexuality as the forefront in her graphic works. Her use of paint and ink, where crisp lines and restrained colour palettes combine with the negative space of the canvas produce a distinctive vision of feminine physicality. Opening up a space of interaction between ‘nakedness’ and ‘nudity’ just as she plots a delicate course between the figurative and the abstract, Hodsoll poses questions about the synthetic and the bodily. Alba Hodsoll lives and works in London, UK.

Superseed 1, 2018

Oil on canvas
50 x 50 cm
£3,100

Untitled, 2018

Ink and coloured pencil on paper
42 x 42 cm
£850

Untitled, 2016

Oil on leather
25 x 25 cm
£1,600

Pleasure Seed, 2018

Fibreglass and resin
25.5 x 27.5 x 16.5 cm
£2,500

Luc Paradis (b. 1979, Canada) is a contemporary artist who borrows imagery from the historical avant-garde, translated into popular local language. His references to the artistic canon are often humorous, preferring to identify with subcultures and dreamworlds. The work of Luc Paradis moves in and out of various media at a rhythmic and steady pace. This multifaceted practice includes painting, sculpture and drawing. Collage serves as a guiding principle, appearing both independently as individual works and as the preface to the assemblage and installation of the various elements of his oeuvre. Paradis’ interest in collage suggests the Bauhausian axiom of the total work of art – where design, craft and fine art meet and the distinctions between various creative endeavours are blurred. Luc lives and works in Québec, Canada.

Scorpio Rising, 2018

Oil on canvas
138 x 107 cm
£3,250

Stay Light On Your Feet, 2016

Acrylic on panel
138 x 107 cm
£3,250

The Egg, 2018

Acrylic and oil on wood panel
138 x 107 cm
£3,250

Fringe Runner #1, 2018

Acrylic and oil on wood panel
76.5 x 61 cm
£1,700

Louise Reynolds (b.1998, Scotland) is a Contemporary visual artist whose works conceptually explore the masculinist tropes seen throughout the history painting. Painters who constructed the grand narrative works which are presented as fact were never physically present for the events they were paid by a biased commissioner to illustrate. Louise sees through her own work a revised edition of history painting, poignantly in the era of fake news, but without an actual commissioner. This is substituted with the bewildering oversaturation of news items which proliferate her online existence. Louise habitually reads the news, informing her large scale oil paintings, recontextualising prevailing and fad narratives into dystopic visions of the present and future. Louise lives and works in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.

Statistical Phantoms, 2020

Oil on canvas
160 x 100 cm
£1,700

California Wildfire, 2018

Oil on canvas
120 x 90 cm
£1,500

If You Didn't Laugh You'd Cry, 2020

Oil on canvas
150 x 130 cm
£1,850

Blissful Ignorance, 2020

Oil on canvas
150 x 150 cm
£1,950

Mattia Barbieri (b.1985, Italy) is an Italian visual artist whose works explore the traditions of art history through a contemporary lens. While relatively small in size, Mattia’s works are loaded with layers upon layers of visual information. The aftermath is a picture so dense with reference that it cannot hold onto a single idea or message for very long, presented by elements and symbols that are disconnected and compete with each other. Mattia offers insight on human experience in a digital world where fragmented and ever-changing computer screens are forming our perceptions of reality and each other. Mattia lives and works in Milan, Italy.

Paracelso, 2020

Oil on wood framed with aluminium
126 x 90 cm
£5,500

Basilide, 2019

Oil on wood framed with aluminium
63 x 46 cm
£3,100

Very Noisy For Anything, 2017

Oil on wood
40 x 33 cm
£2,650

Screen Epiphany, 2017

Oil on wood
40 x 33 cm
£2,650

Khaleb Brooks (b.1991, USA) is a multi- disciplinary artist and researcher exploring blackness, transness and collective memory. Through painting, performance and video his latest works blur the lines between history and futures in an attempt to explore the possibilities inherent in liminal spaces. A liminal space is in between worlds, dislocation, without rights, non- being. Meshing the black queer figure with surreal environments in paintings and entering transcendental states in performance he forces his audience to confront the literal and social death of black trans people globally. Khaleb is currently an artist in residence at the Tate Modern. Khaleb lives and works in London, UK.

American Target, 2017

Print on archival paper
59.5 x 42 cm
£250

Haunted By Self Care, 2017

Acrylic, charcoal, braids on canvas
122 x 91.5 cm
£1,000

100% COTTON, 2018

Acrylic and ink on canvas
181 x 155 cm
£1,200

The Tides Are Changing, 2020

Acrylic on canvas
181 x 185 cm
£3,000