Audi High RISE Gallery
I am a London-based painter and sculptor working mostly with the mediums of oil paint and wood. I studied Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art (2017) and Portrait Painting at Heatherley’s School of Fine Art (2021). Known for surface texture, mark-making and abbreviation, bringing harmony between these elements is an important pursuit of mine. Key themes and concerns that inform my conceptual interests are humanity, intimacy, perception, climate and environment.
Working to create pictures that explore intimacy, tenderness and spectator assumptions and build sculptures that investigate the swirling, changing, charged political energies we are living through.
Additional areas that inform my practice are in dance and community engagement. As a dancer and former dance teacher, practising Salsa and Hiphop in the UK and Europe, I am keenly interested in movement and dynamic energies. Providing workshops in portrait painting has furthered my interaction with different communities, giving notice to the personalities and opinions I come across. Presenting a workshop to GCSE/A-Level students at Cedar’s School in south London (2023) gave me experience engaging with youth and encountering their particular, varied and often shrewd observations of the world. This has influenced my intentions for continued collaboration with schools and institutions, building the opportunity to learn from a range of demographics and gain perspective across a broader spectrum of society.
Awards & Exhibitions:
- Winner of the Phyllis Roberts Prize 2019 with the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
- Royal Society of Portrait Painters 2021 (RP)
- Shortlisted exhibitor in the Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize 2021, exhibited at Coventry Cathedral
- Heatherley’s Summer Exhibition 2020 & 2021
- Fishslab Gallery Whitstable, group exhibition 2022 & 2023
- Wales Contemporary/Cymru Gyfoes International Art Competition 2022, exhibited Oxo Galleries
- Royal Institute of Oil Painters annual exhibition 2022
- Young Artist Award 2022 with Winsor &Newton & Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI)
- TV appearance as competitor on Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year, 2022
A number of paintings have also been recognised with pre-selection for the Royal Society of Portrait Painters(RP) annual exhibition 2019, New English Art Club(NEAC) annual exhibition 2019 and Royal Institute Oil Painters(ROI) annual exhibition 2021.