SNOECKS 2021 | ISABELLE VAN ZEIJL

"A special Snoecks for special times, you should not expect less from Snoecks 2021. We opted for hope and courage for our cover, with penetrating portraits of Isabelle van Zeijl. A contemporary artist which exhibit an idiosyncratic and critical view of beauty ideals and its representation in art history."

 

- Geert Stadieus, Editor in Chief Snoecks

C-print mounted on dibond, perspex face in tray frame

Framed:
113 x 103.1 cm
44 1/2 x 40 1/2 in
Unframed:
110 x 100.1 cm
43 1/4 x 39 3/8 in

Edition of 7 plus 3 artist's proofs (#1/7)

"Surround yourself with beauty, and your life will be beautiful.

One day I decided to turn my eye towards all that was beautiful around me.

Beauty became my nutrition, my purifier and a way to survive troubled times. 

Bringing you beauty, light and inspiration became my mission."

- Isabelle van Zeijl

In a contemporary art world that condemns beauty as camouflage for conceptual shallowness, championing high aesthetics is nothing short of rebellion. Dutch photographer Isabelle Van Zeijl takes female beauty ideals from the past, and sabotages them in the context of today. As a women she experiences prejudices against women; misogyny in numerous ways including sex discrimination, belittling/violence against women and sexual objectification. Van Zeijl aestheticises these prejudices in her work to visually discuss this troubling dichotomy, presenting a new way of seeing female beauty. An oppressive idealisation of beauty is tackled in her work through unique female character and emotion.

Van Zeijl is invested in her images. By using subjects that intrigue and evoke emotion, she reinvents herself over and over and has created a body of work to illustrate these autobiographical narratives. Her work takes from all she experiences in life - she is both model, creator, object and subject. Going beyond the realm of individual expression, so common in the genre of self-portraiture, she strives to be both universal and timeless, with a subtle political hint.

Van Zeijl has shown work continuously and internationally over the past fifteen years, represented by galleries located in The UK, USA, The Netherlands, Belgium, and exhibiting at emerging and established international art fairs in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, London, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and Italy. She was nominated for the Prix De La Photographie Paris, and The Fine Art Photography Awards. She was also one of the winners of The 2017 Young Masters Emerging Women Art Prize, London. Her work is held in private & public collections in the USA, UK, Belgium, Germany, France and The Netherlands.

Isabelle van Zeijl is represented internationally by the Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

VIEW MORE WORKS By Isabelle van Zeijl

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Snoecks is a 550-plus-page magazine is published once a year in October and focuses on new international developments in the arts, photography and literature.[1] The magazine has featured artists such as Anton Corbijn, Larry Sultan, Matthew Barney, Terry Richardson, Ron Mueck, Alberto Garcia-Alix, Peter Lindbergh, Albert Watson, Desiree Dolron, Bettina Rheims, Diana Scheunemann, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and Andres Serrano.

The first Snoecks appeared in the 1920s, but its modern form, with an emphasis on photography, has its base in the seventies. Since 2004 its editor-in-chief has been Geert Stadeus.

ANNE GIBBS | TESSA EASTMAN | FLORA YUKHONVICH | CURE³ (CURE CUBED), A CONTEMPORARY ART FUNDRAISING EXHIBITION

Art, fashion and science unite at Cure³, a selling exhibition curated by Artwise and hosted in partnership with Bonhams to raise awareness and funds for The Cure Parkinson's Trust.

OPENING HOURS

Saturday 5 Sept - 11.00am-5.00pm

Sunday 6 Sept - 11.00am-3.00pm

Monday 7 Sept - 9:30am-5:00pm

Tuesday 8 Sept - 9:30am-5:00pm

THE ARTWORKS WILL BE AVAILABLE TO BUY ONLINE FROM 8AM TUESDAY 8th SEPTEMBER FROM WWW.CURE3.CO.UK 

Do you know anyone with Parkinson's Disease? Most people do, and it is not surprising when you look at the statistics: there are an estimated 10 million people living with Parkinson's Disease worldwide and in the UK around 1 in 500 are diagnosed with this cruel degenerative neurological disease - that currently has no cure.

As a call to action, art, fashion and science unite with Cure³ (Cure Cubed) the acclaimed contemporary art fundraising exhibition, established in 2017 and now in its third edition, devised and curated by Artwise in partnership with Bonhams to raise awareness and funds for The Cure Parkinson's Trust.

The unique concept for Cure³ remains the same: each artist is given a bespoke Perspex cube measuring just 20cm3 as a compact space to interact with in any way to create original artworks on or within. For Cure³ 2020 over 90 participating artists including leading names from the world of fashion will be participating. The resultant highly sought-after and collectable artworks will be exhibited at Bonhams from 5-8 September and sold online with prices ranging from under £1,000 to over £40,000.

The Cure Parkinson's Trust is an inspirational and dynamic charity with a major goal to find a cure for Parkinson's Disease. To date, thanks to the generosity of all the contributing artists, Cure³ has raised over ¾ million pounds for The Cure Parkinson's Trust, to fund research to slow, stop and ultimately reverse Parkinson's. 

To find out more about the exhibition and featured artists please visit cure3.co.uk

To find out more about The Cure Parkinson's Trust please visit cureparkinsons.org.uk

Tessa Eastman

Anne Gibbs

Carry On Creativity: A Series of Interviews with Young Masters' Artists : Keith Maddy

1. Describe your experience of professional training and how does it continue to inform your process and productivity?   

My portfolio of work to gain acceptance to Massachusetts College of Art was all collage.  Once in, I eventually had to choose a department in which to major.  While my early collages were very graphic design oriented, I wanted more freedom to be loose and explore and chose the painting dept.  While taking traditional foundation courses of painting I specifically chose studio instructors who were known to give good direction to those students who had an independent streak with ideas straying from those foundations (still life, landscape, portraiture).  This allowed me to explore mixed media ideas incorporating sculpture, painting, drawing and collage, more 3D and textured than 2D and flat.  Combined w/insightful critiques and academic studies, this education further gave me the confidence to pursue my own unique work, blurring lines/boundaries.

2. What is your average day like both in the studio and out and about?

My average day in the studio often consists of hours and hours and hours of cutting detailed and delicate shapes/characters from vintage children’s books.  I may be in the middle of a piece and searching for the right character.  Scouring thru vintage children’s coloring books, searching for the right one, the right energy, the right size and line… I think I may have found it but I have to cut it out before I know for sure if it works, kind of like finding the right puzzle piece.  If it’s not a fit, it becomes inventory.  Files full of various cut outs for future use.  To pay my bills, I am a massage therapist and typically am working 4 days a week.  Weather and season permitting, I love to be at the beach as often as possible, lying in the sun and swimming.  It’s play, it’s energizing, close to nature, soulful and meditative.  I also spend lots of time scouring eBay for source material for my art, as well as vintage mermaids… a 35-year collector!      

Chinese Lanterns 1, 2019

Collage/Works on Paper

6 × 9 in

3. Can you tell us a little more about your work "Chinese Lanterns 1" for which you won the Young Masters & Brownhill Peoples Choice Awards in 2019?  

First, I have to say, I honestly love and find great joy in the creation of all my work.  Chinese Lanterns 1 and Chinese Lanterns 2 both follow a trend I often pursue, working on top of a pre-existing image or pattern.  In this case, a vintage lithograph of paper Chinese lanterns, purchased on eBay.  I was drawn to the delicate lines, colors and texture of the lithograph as well as the delicacy, buoyancy and volume of these common items of a foreign culture; functional, colorful and joyful.  As with all my collages, images of children are common symbolizing play, innocence and imagination.  In Chinese Lanterns 1 we see a boy fishing in between two forces, calm, relaxed, waiting, patient.  To his right a jumble of imagery, tangled, overlapping, layered… a cowboy, a horse, an astronaut, children at play, a giant flower that looks like a fire pit.  To his left an equally layered structure of imagery… a girl on a swing, an upside down Jack-o-lantern, a colorful kimono, patent leather shoes popping out above and below, standing atop a pile of rubble, an extinct fire pit?  The fishing boy squeezed between layered thoughts of his experience and imagination, compositionally balanced on a ledge between two seemingly chaotic forces.

 4. Can you share a little about your current work in progress?

I just completed a body of work for what was to be my first actual solo exhibit slated for May but had to be postponed due to covid19 state wide closures.  During the shut down and being unemployed I was able to be in the studio every day, all day, 7 days a week.  This enabled me to be more focused and unrushed to finish my final piece for the exhibit and my largest piece to date, a 4’ x 6’ collage developed on top of a vintage Asian folding screen with an image of some fanciful green tailed birds in a blooming magnolia tree.  Unlike earlier pieces, like Chinese Lanterns 1, what previously was densely layered loosened up and imagery (like the fishing boy) were revealed to the viewer.  By doing so, a narrative developed with a cast of characters, circus acrobats, dancers, plants and animals of different sizes and shapes (all hand cut) traversed the screen… parading across the ground, amongst the tree limbs and flowers and flying thru the air, a true feast of imaginative story telling.  As two boys slumbered in the bough of the tree comes the title:  Dreaming In the Bough of the Magnolia Tree.  As with other works developed on top of Asian imagery, I enjoyed exploring the interplay between East/West, old/new, high/low (brow).

Since the completion of this piece I have purchased another smaller Asian folding screen that has an image of a tree branch spread across the four panels with several beautiful blue birds in it’s branches.  I have only just begun considering and exploring some preliminary images to insert into this landscape to see how they interact and where it takes me.

5.  Are there any particular people, places or things that serve as points of inspiration for you and your work?

 Vintage and nostalgic materials…weathered/worn toys, books and clothing for their patterns, colors, shapes, line work and essence.  Nature (particularly the beach) for the same reasons but also for the sense of being alive, free, opening and clearing one’s mind, play.  The list of artists I admire are vast, varied, multi disciplined, including dance and architecture, famous and not, and a strong love for folk and indigenous arts.

 6.  What do you wish for people to encounter or experience when they take in your work?

I love when I see viewers drawn in to investigate closer and utterances of joy, wonder and laughter are elicited as they discover hidden images, connections and associations of my works’ construction, detail and messaging.  

What are some of the statements people have made about your work that have resonated or stuck with you?

How did you do that?  You cut all those pieces out by hand?  I love living with your work, I am constantly seeing something different even years later.  Your work brings me so much joy.

7. In your Collage/Works on Paper you use many different types of materials and elements, do you have a selection process for this and how do you choose them?  

Vintage children’s coloring books and storybooks are my predominant materials at the moment.  I seek out vintage as I am attracted to period colors, lines and imagery that vary from decade to decade.  For my collaging, vintage paper quality is also very important as far as adhering, typically more porous with more ‘tooth’ than today’s slick print papers.  Backgrounds, such as the various lithographs and screens I have been working on, have been chosen not only for the same reasons listed above, but also for a cross cultural play of imagery.

8.  How has COVID-19 and the lockdown affected your day to day life and approach to creative work? 

It has impacted my day to day life here in Boston quite a bit. I did have my first actual solo exhibit scheduled here in Boston from May 29 – July 7 but it had to be postponed until spring 2021, perhaps for the best.   As well as a working artist I am also a massage therapist.  The spa where I work had to close mid March.  I’m not sure it has affected my approach to creative work, but a silver lining for me is that I have been able to walk to my studio and have the luxury of working unfettered 24/7 while collecting unemployment.  A rarity for most struggling artists.  There is also something about the city being shut down that is hauntingly peaceful and beautiful, less chaotic, less frantic, less traffic, less city noise.  A forced time to slow down, for contemplation and to reset, be it societal, professional, personal, all three.

View more work by Keith Maddy

View Keith Maddy’s most recent exhibition at Howard Yezerski Gallery

Carry On Creativity: A Series of Interviews with Young Masters' Artists : Azita Moradkhani

1. Describe your experience of professional training and how does it continue to inform your process and productivity?

Coming from a traditional artistic practice during my BFA at Tehran University of Art in Iran to my MFA degree at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University with the focus on the concept, I’ve been challenged in both technical and theoretical aspects of the art-making process. My drawings on paper and casts of my body, as well as textile and sculptural installations, represent a non- Western aesthetics of pleasure and beauty. Working at the intersections of drawing, sculpture, and textile design, I locate my work in a feminist response to Edward Said’s “Orientalism”: ideas of womanhood in the post-colonial world and the

post-revolution generation in Iran intertwine with conflicts at the borders of tradition and (post-)modernity. Meanwhile, I pursue beauty and realism in contemporary art by deploying formality, virtuosity, and delicacy, connecting my work aesthetically to art of the past.

Azita Moradkhani

2. What is your average day like both in the studio and out and about?

I spend an average of six hours a day in my studio. It usually starts with my admin work, research, and reviewing my visual resources for the current project. Then, I start my drawing with a selected piece (I usually work on multiple drawings at the same time) for three to four hours. The rest of the time will be spent on experimental techniques (embroidery, cyanotype printing, dying fabric, drawing on fabric, and tailoring) for my new project. Living in the current visual era bombarded with constant (both welcoming and unwelcoming) images, I try to manage my exposure to images relative to my work. However, due the COVID-19 outbreak, everything, including my access to technical facilities, exposure of my work, studio space, and connection to art professionals have been affected over the last several months.

Azita Moradkhani, Not Too Far Away (Victorious Secrets), 2016

3. Can you speak a little more about your work Not Too Far Away (Victorious Secrets) as this was the piece that won the Young Masters Art Prize and Young Masters Emerging Woman Art Prize in 2017?

The female body, and its exposure to differing social norms, is central to my work. Through my work, I examine the experience of finding ourselves insecure in our own bodies. In my series of colored pencil drawings, “Victorious Secrets”, unexpected images incorporated in intimate apparel intend to bring humor, surprise, and a shock of recognition. Layers of shadowy images reveal stories, with the hope of leaving a mark on the audience. Two worlds–my birthplace and my current home–live alongside each other in my work, joining intimately at a single point.

In “Not Too Far Away,” I use a photograph of migrants arriving in Greece on a Turkish boat in 2015. This piece was inspired by the painting “The Raft of the Medusa” by Theodore Gericault: the figure at the top right side, holding a piece of fabric, is repeated in the figure of a child at the top left side of the image in my drawing who also holds a piece of cloth. Both of these images show immigrants drifting on the sea, risking their vulnerable bodies for the hope of a better future.

4. Can you share a little about your current work in progress?

Over the last few years, my process of making art has transitioned from drawings to more complex layers of body casts that allow the work to interact with the audience beyond the surface. Related to my own roots in Persian textile and inspired by the work of artists whom I admire–such as Louise Bourgeois, who says, "Clothing is a metaphor of the years that pass.

For me fashion is the experience of living in this dress, in these shoes"–I am taking my practice further and transferring my drawings onto actual lingerie fabric. In blurring the borders between artistic disciplines in my studio practice, I hope to interrogate the cultural and historical ideas shaping my work. Using these new images and materials emphasizes the marks of history and memory on the body and its accoutrements. My new body of work seeks a new perspective on wearable art, creating lingerie across the gender spectrum for different identities–an artistic vision that can challenge the public perspective of the most intimate clothing as a personal ideology rather than just a piece of cloth.

Right Image: Labor II, colored pencil, 22 x30 inches, 2020

Left Image: Labor, colored pencil, 22 x 30 inches, 202

5. Are there any particular people, places or things that serve as points of inspiration for you and your work?

Growing up in Tehran, I was exposed to Persian art and culture, as well as recent Iranian politics, and that double exposure increased my sensitivity to the dynamics of vulnerability and violence that I explore in my work and art-making process. A sense of delicacy and colorful patterns connect my work aesthetically to Persian art; from childhood I was surrounded by intricate Persian carpets and textile designs. For me, the patterns are traumas that repeat unconsciously regardless of their aesthetic aspects and the pleasure leads to pain and feeling overwhelmed in my drawings. 

Meanwhile, Wangechi Mutu, Shirin Neshat, and Greer Lankton are some of the artists whose careers and work I admire. I’ve been impressed by the way Linkton connects her body’s experiences in her work, which results in a strong dialogue with the viewer about gender and sexuality. I also appreciate the way that Shirin Neshat uses the bodies of women to have conversations regarding women’s issues in Islamic countries and their connection to deeply cultural aspects of these societies. Moreover, I, like Wangechi Mutu, believe that "females carry the marks, language and nuances of their culture more than the male. Anything that is desired or despised is always placed on the female body.”

Moreover, over the past few years, I have participated in such residencies as Yaddo, Virginia C enter for the Creative Arts (VCCA), McColl Center For Art+Innovation, and Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA). The exposure to different communities of artists, dialogue with arts professionals, and lecturing at universities have helped me branch my ideas out in more fulfilling directions.

6. What do you wish for people to encounter or experience when they take in your work? What are some of the statements people have made about your work that have resonated or stuck with you?

I am fascinated by the stories that I hear of how viewers were surprised upon finding the shadowy images in the drawings of lingerie and how people (from across the gender spectrum) create a connection with an uncomfortable object such as lingerie in a public presentation. My drawings are very subtle and detailed, which requires the audience to get very close to the pieces to see the hidden stories of ghostly images. I use an aesthetic of pleasure to seduce the viewer, who finds, upon closer inspection, through the layers of colored pencil, past the details of lace and filigree, disruptive iconography narrating inherited histories of nation and belief.

Azita Moradkhani

7. When and what was your first interaction with art and how did this influence you in becoming an artist?

My father’s oil paintings were my first memorable encounter with visual art. He is an artist and he used to paint at home after a long day working a glass workshop, supervising workers to cut and design glass for installation in huge commercial buildings. Painting is his passion and he used to have a corner of the living room where he set up his easel to start painting right after dinner. Having a father who is an artist himself was a huge inspiration for me through my whole life.

In Tehran, from childhood, I was surrounded and impressed by beautiful Persian carpets, colorful textile designs, as well as Persian miniatures with their colorful details and the art of storytelling through images which can be seen in my work.

8. How has COVID-19 and the lockdown affected your day to day life and approach to creative work?

During my last residency at the McColl Center For Art+Innovation in North Carolina, before it shut down because of the COVID-19 outbreak, I was solidifying ideas for images on lingerie, connecting with intimate apparel designers, and learning to fabricate clothing for art exhibitions through exploring techniques such as cyanotype, dyeing, and embroidery, alongside advanced tools like a digital sewing machine. In March 2020, my residency was shut down and I lost all my access to the technical equipment and such resources as a printmaking studio, embroidery workshop, textile workshops, and studio space. I also lost my connection to intimate apparel designers/companies that were provided by the institution as resources/guidelines for my project. Following that, my runway show at the McColl Gala on April 3rd was canceled and consequently, my whole project was stopped. Currently, I am focusing on research and experimenting new techniques that are possible in my home-studio. My research includes learning the fashion history of intimate lingerie in the 20th century; creating designs for wearable art pieces in connection to the contemporary fashion of intimate apparel. These days, I am learning new techniques in textile design and printmaking; advancing my skills in embroidery, dyeing fabric, and tailoring; and determining the best materials for fabrication.

View More work by Azita Moradkhani Here

Carry On Creativity: A Series of Interviews with Young Masters' Artists - Foster White

1. Describe your experience of professional training and how does it continue to inform your process and productivity?

I’m a firm believer in learning from experience. After highschool I took two years off to shadow and assist Portrait Photographers that I admired. This manifested as carrying bags and setting up / striking equipment, learning practical lighting techniques along the way. From there I enlisted in a Boston University affiliated trade school to focus in studio photography to continue polishing my skills. Thankfully, having the technical side of things reinforced, I can rely on my people skills to try to make the best environment possible when capturing my subjects 

2.  What is your average day like both in the studio and out and about?

My average day is a constant exercise in organizing my scatterbrained thoughts and creative impulses into something positive. Let’s just say, some days I succeed, other days… not so much. My day usually always begins with matcha and music. I’ll fire up my turntables and play some music for myself while I enjoy my morning caffeine. From there it’s onto the logistics of my day, emails and planning for my personal career. By 10AM my day job, running the photo department at Tuckernuck, a DC based lifestyle company, takes over from there. Once 6PM hits I start trying to organize shoots with friends & peers. Seeing as shoots in enclosed spaces are much harder than usual (Thanks COVID), I plan more outdoor shoots than ever now. Most of which in my own backyard. 

3. What was your exposure to photography before you started your journey with still photography in high school?

Before I started learning photography formally, my real first exposure to this craft was through movies and music. It’s amusing for me to reflect on, but one of my favorite movies growing up was Austin Powers (1997). Aside from being an ‘International Man of Mystery’, he was also a fashion photographer (albeit a caricature of one). The funniest thing is, the more I learn about fashion photographers from the 60’ and 70’s, the more I appreciate how spot on his impersonation of a photographer was.  

4. Can you share a little about your current work in progress? 

Currently, I’m working heavily in music. Music is such a driving force for my spirit and mood so I’ve found myself pushing more energy into bringing my talents to the world of music in a positive way.

D.Y.Y.O., 2019, 35mm Photography Inkjet Printed on Matte Canvas, 36 × 24 in

5.  Are there any particular people, places or things that serve as points of inspiration for you and your work?

Blue Note album artworks have always been a major source of inspiration for my work. There’s a wide range of photography styles that went into their catalog of music. Over the years, seeing photographs of live performances & studio sessions that have been featured on record jackets has certainly played a big role into my photographic style.

6. What do you wish for people to encounter or experience when they take in your work? What are some of the statements people have made about your work that have resonated or stuck with you?

Personally, when I go to create, I’m looking to get a little closer to a subject or an idea that I’m curious about, and aim to learn something along the way. The goal then is to pass on my perspective and learnings. So all I hope for is for someone to see my work and either learn from it or become more curious by it. There aren’t any specific comments that stick out, however there are actions that stick out to me and really make me feel warm inside. When people begin unique and new conversations sparked by a photograph I presented, I really beam inside. Even beyond that, when people begin musical conversations around my work or tell me they're reminded of a certain song, no matter the song, I always find that so rewarding and interesting.

Arfa Iqbal - A Modern Woman, 2019, 35mm Photography Inkjet Printed on Matte Canvas, 30 × 48 in

7. Can you speak a little about your piece Arfa Iqbal - A Modern Woman, 2019 as this was chosen by the judges for The Young Masters Art Prize exhibition? 

One of the best things about growing up in a diverse area, was the range of people and cultures I was exposed to. Arfa is someone I grew up alongside and am so fortunate to know. She has always had such honest and empowered energy about her and it’s infectious. It radiates off of her. What’s amazing is that she’ll be the first to credit those traits to her amazing family. Which to me, is beautiful. Conceptually, the idea was to capture her energy along with the elements of her family and heritage that build her into the woman she is. However, I wanted to bring emphasis to how her culture and upbringing fused with her individual personality. So we crafted the project as a diptych. One side, styled by her mom, to illustrate her family - the other side, styled by her, to share her personality.

 8. How has COVID-19 and the lockdown affected your day to day life and approach to creative work?

Live music venues and studio environments being closed has really shaken my creative approach… However, being home a lot of the time has really a benefit for my day to day life. Having less places to be has allowed me space to think, which I think has been good for my mind and how I approach my work. The time I’m not spending out somewhere is now being spent reaching out to folks who inspire me, and even if it’s digitally, keeping human connection going.

View work here

Carry On Creativity: A Series of Interviews with Young Masters' Artists - Oliver Jones

1.  Describe your experience of professional training and how does it continue to inform your process and productivity?

Although I have been through art school the physical nature and the skills of my practice are very much self-taught, drawing is something I have always done and it hadn’t ever particularly occurred to me that I would do anything else. I received commissions of sorts from as far back as I can remember (Although I wouldn’t like to re-encounter some of the early ones!). However what Art School did was to nurture a notion of self-interrogation - the course that I took was very much self-directed and so transferring my practice and furthering my research as a practising artist was pretty seamless. It will no doubt forever continue to inform the questioning that I have for my work.

2. What is your average day like both in the studio and out and about?

When I am at the beginning, middle or end of a piece of work my days a spent wholly in the studio until it is finished. It will involve deciphering/interpreting a photographic image or a mirrored reflection and transposing the information into pastel gestures and drinking coffee!  However when I am in a researching phase, things become a little more sporadic and spontaneous. New works are always compiled mentally and probably somewhat loosely however I have a definite idea of what I need the work to achieve and look like, the issue then is spending days and sometimes months on the lookout for suitable reference material.  Whether that is scouring model’s profiles or getting out physically searching for the embodiment of the image that I have in my head. (it certainly isn’t unheard of for me to stop folk in the street and ask them to sit for photographs) For this reason I can have a number of works ‘on the go’ in my head until I find an adequate reference, it is rare that I have the idea with an immediate resource to hand. That is not to say that it can’t also work in reverse, a commission for example, means that I more often than not have the resource material to hand and then having to tailor it to suit a certain outcome. Both instances result in a photo shoot which then involves trawling through hundreds of images and selecting a handful which I can then compose through digital editing into an image as close to my mental vision as possible. 

3. How does having a family inform your work? Can you speak a little about your piece '#motherandchild'?

 Having a family very much focuses my attention and I think it has altered my thinking; it has certainly given me a more profound outlook on life and a deepened questioning of it and probably due to seeing it from multiple points of view and perspectives. Seeing as art is derived from observation of life and the world around us it naturally proceeds that the more cues I am surrounded by the more I have to comment on throughout my work. This is certainly the case with “#motherandchild” - becoming immersed in a world* (*parenting) that is completely new and reactive necessitated a consideration of how others react to a similar position. This led me to the inquiry surrounding parenting/motherhood and the behemoth that is social media.  I wanted to draw comparisons between historic visions of motherliness and a more contemporary version seeing as it is difficult to escape from an archetypal notion of “how it ought to be done” and how one naturally adapts to it. But I also cannot help but see that technology, most significantly mobiles phones, have impacted so significantly on our lives and have become so much of a distraction that even the interaction between parent and child is impacted. On a more personal level, (even though I don’t put any of my drawings up at home) it is always interesting to document those close to you, in this case my wife and my newly born second daughter. I think there probably may well be some greater conveyance of likeness or personality simply through the closeness I have to them in life rather than just as a sitter. 

4. Can you share a little about your current work in progress? 

My current work centres largely on DIY beauty therapies. There are so many weird and wonderful self-help technologies circulating on the internet, most of which have little or no scientific grounding or evidence of results, yet it doesn’t deter individuals from experimenting with them in the pursuit of ‘perfection’. This particular piece, not to give too much away, involves artificial lighting from lights in the device designed to alter ones appearance – Since I dabbled with neon lighting in the work “Divine” I have gained an interest in the effects of artificial light. 

5. Are there any particular people, places or things that serve as points of inspiration for you and your work?

Social Media is certainly my biggest influence currently. Observing how people convey their lives, personalities and physical facades through the prism of societal expectation is absolutely fascinating to me. From my perspective, social media coupled with industry are the driving force behind the modern day standards of acceptability within society and this has always been a theme inherent in my work. As it continues to change it shall no doubt continue to intrigue me and inform my work.  

6. You also teach. How do your students shape and/or changed your point of view as an artist working today?

What teaching does very well, is that it makes you interrogate your working methods and simplify them down to their very basic forms. Einstein said that if you can’t explain it simply then you don’t understand it well enough. In the same way, there wouldn’t be any point in trying to explain to people the way I render my drawings now, as it is something that comes naturally and has been adapted and refined over many years. Instead I find it better to give folk the framework so that they can negotiate problems themselves and in turn find their own style of using the materials.  

 7. What do you wish for people to encounter or experience when they take in your work? What are some of the statements people have made about your work that have resonated or stuck with you?

What I have always tried to do with my work is engage the audience for long enough so that they might start to question the themes for themselves. Now more than ever we live in a throwaway society and we digest much of our imagery in the same way, we are used to flicking past images in magazines and scrolling through hundreds of images that ask us to question the reality very little because it is marketed as the norm and why should there be any reason to? It is easy to become invested in a reality that has been built upon ulterior motives, one that is very rarely based upon truth in order keep the machine running and the monopoly afloat. I try to re-advertise reality to an audience without the omissions so that they can question it for themselves. What I am always glad of, is hearing comments from audiences, whether good or bad, which sound as though this concept is working rather than just hearing “its good it looks just like a photo!”

8) How has COVID-19 and the lockdown affected your day to day life and approach to creative work?

Thankfully, I am very fortunate to have studios where I live after having moved my studios out of Birmingham. I also managed to get hold of a lot of materials to make new stretchers etc just before the country was locked down which has meant that I have been able to work pretty well un-interrupted.

It is not without its setbacks however, for instance, being able to access artist Models. I have had a number of commissioned works requested over this period all of which would ordinarily require me to advertise for models, sift through hundreds of individual’s profiles to find someone suitable and then upon selecting the appropriate candidate organising a photoshoot to provide the reference material for the drawing, which has obviously not been possible. Improvisation has been successful so far although I shall have to wait until models are available for certain things.

It also had a rather major impact on a solo exhibition that I had put together in collaboration with Meadow Arts and the National Trust. ‘Skin Deep’ was due to open a few days before lock down although, rightly, the decision was made to postpone the opening and the running of the show until a later date. The country then closed down as did the venue, indefinitely – so it is quite strange to think that there is a whole show hanging in  Berrington Hall, a very grand and ornate Georgian property in Herefordshire, that is only being viewed by the spiders!

What has been amazing during this period is to observe the global artist community/ art world take to the internet, whether that has been digital/virtual exhibitions, artistic initiatives, artist interviews and videos etc. I have watched a lot of live interactions and conversations with artists, gallerists, curators and collectors. It has quite obviously sparked a new era for the art world, one that so many are fighting to be at the forefront and many slightly unsure of the best way to navigate it.

Undoubtedly the best thing that has arrived during this period personally has been communicating with other artists, far more so than I would have done ordinarily; hearing how one another have been getting on and discussing work and ideas - It is something I really hope carries on as we come out into a new normal.

View more of Oliver Jones work here

35 Years Of Azzopardi | In Conversation with Art Historian & Warhol Expert Jean Wainwright

The Cynthia Corbett Gallery continues its series of talks dedicated to the 35 YEARS OF AZZOPARDI retrospective with a conversation between founder & director Cynthia Corbett and art historian, critic, curator and a judge for the 2019 Young Masters Art Prize, Professor Jean Wainwright, who is an internationally recognised expert on Andy Warhol.

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Jean Wainwright is an art historian, critic and curator living in London. Her areas of expertise are in contemporary art and photography, with particular reference to Andy Warhol, on whose life and works she is an internationally recognised expert. As a writer and academic she has published extensively in the contemporary arts field, contributing to numerous  catalogues and books as well as appearing on television and radio programmes (including Woman’s Hour, Today Programme, Channel Four and the BBC). Her Audio Arts Archive (begun in 1996) is still continuing and to date she has interviewed over a 1,800 international artists, makers, photographers, filmmakers and curators, 177 of her published interviews conducted for Audio Arts went online at the Tate in 2014.  

Her international exhibitions include My Search for Andy Warhol’s Voice 2011 & 2012, Ship to Shore: Art and the Lure of the Sea, 2014, Gestures of Resistance, 2017, The Data Battlefield, 2017, Powerful Tides, 400 Years of Chatham and the Sea 2018, and Another Spring 2018.

 Wainwright’s practice as an art critic most prominently features interviews with international artists, photographers, filmmakers and curators. Her interviews can be found in the numerous books and catalogues she has contributed to, and her work has been published extensively in the media, including Audio Arts, The Art Newspaper, The Art Newspaper TV (for which she won an IVCA award), Art World, The Guardian, Art Review and Hotshoe.

As a presenter and interviewer, Wainwright has covered all the major art fairs and events over the past 15 years, including Frieze (London), Art Basel in Miami and Basel, the Venice Biennale and The Armory (New York).

Wainwright has also collaborated on a number of corporate arts projects for Futurecity, including Heathrow Terminal 2 (Slipstream), Grosvenor Waterside, Gilt of Cain, Ebbsfleet Valley and BT Connected World. She is also a consultant for Quintessentially Art. She is also a committee member of Fast Forward Women in Photography.