WEEK #1

AMY STEEL & ALICIA TSIGARIDES

Alicia Tsigarides and Amy Steel both participated in our 2019 group exhibition, Ripe Beings, which presented visions of eight female artists and their explorations of the body as a generative, organic form, full of potential.

The exhibition webpage is viewable here and a review of the show by Elephant Magazine accessible here.

All artworks are available to purchase. Should you wish to make an enquiry please email maddie@whitecrypt.com or anais@whitecrypt.com

AMY STEEL

Untitled (moon, nails), 2020, oil on canvas, 80 x 80 cm

Untitled (gorilla), 2019, oil on canvas, 120 x 160 cm

Untitled (beetles), 2019, oil on canvas, 82 x 102 cm

Untitled (cobweb), 2020, oil on canvas, 72 x 102 cm

Untitled (contact lens), 2020, oil on canvas, 95 x 120 cm

Untitled (moon, hand), 2020, oil on canvas, 110 x 125 cm

Amy Steel’s interdisciplinary practice evolves across painting and performance. Otherworldly narratives reveal the limitless potential for the body to coalesce and transform with another; be it landscape, animal or other. An interconnectedness from one form (human), to another (animal/landscape), becomes possible through framing sensuality as the connective tissue between all things. Propelling forward our need to listen and be inspired from the energies of the multiverse, the power of nature and the feminine.

Over the past year, Steel has been working in connection with the Adrian Carruthers Award, a prestigious early career award that comes out of a partnership between Acme and Slade School of Fine Arts, and has been funded by Acme and the Adrian Carruthers Memorial Fund. Speaking about how this award - and Covid-19 - has influenced her practice, Steel comments:

The goal of this award provides a bridge between college and professional practice for MFA graduates from Slade School of Fine Art. I am currently preparing work for a two person show at PEER gallery later on in 2020 and since the coronavirus outbreak, I have been drawing a lot more and also started experimenting with collage. In some ways collage allows me to make associations at a quicker pace than if I were painting. It’s an interesting way to expand my visual language and think about the paintings.

***
amysteel.info
@amysteel

Amy Steel (b. 1981) is an artist living and working in London.
She graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art, MFA (Distinction) in 2019 and from the Goldsmiths University of London, BA Fine Art (First Class Honours) in 2015.

Selected shows: PEER, London, (forthcoming, 2020); FBAFutures, The Mall Galleries, London (2020) Ripe Beings, White Crypt, London, curated by Anais Lerendu and Maddie Ann Brown (2019). Bite, Barbican Arts Trust Group, London (2019); Holiday, ARCADE, London (2018); Body As Archive, Slade Research Centre (2018); Small Press Project, Woburn, UCL (2018); Drip Dry, Chalton Gallery, London (2018); Up River, Centre for Contemporary Art, Bulgaria (2017); Arte Laguna, Nappe Arsenale, Venice (2017); Opening Times - Digital Art Commission with SALT (2017); Unmoored. Live performance. EXHIBI[6]TIONS, Rich Mix, London (2017); Soft Shell Transmissions. Live stream performance with Cam4Art. Exhibition of performances at Dissenter's Gallery, London (2016); Lifeline. Live performance at Emergency 2016 Live Art Festival, Word Of Warning Productions, Zion Arts, Manchester, UK (2016); The Bathers. Live performance. At Sea, White Conduit Projects, London (2016); Lifeline. Live performance at New Performers, Artsadmin,Toynbee Studios, London (2015); The Furniture showroom, Fat Relic, London (2014); SALT. Salirophilia, Arcadia Missa Gallery, London (2013)

Awards: Adrian Carruther’s Memorial Award, selected by Marianna Simnett with Acme Studios (2019- 2020); ASC Bursary Prize (nomination) (2018); The Deans Strategic Fund (2018); Slade Bursary (2018) Goldsmiths Bursary (2013).

ALICIA TSIGARIDES

Untitled (1), 2020, watercolour pencil on paper, A3

Untitled (2), 2020, watercolour pencil on paper, A3

Untitled (3), 2020, watercolour pencil on paper, A3

Rebirth, 2019, glazed stoneware, extra virgin olive oil

Marriage libation, 2019, glazed stoneware, goats milk, salt, cloves, peppercorns, rosemary, tulip petals, rose petals, lavender seeds

Claw, 2019, glazed stoneware

Gland, 2018, glazed stoneware and golden syrup

Alicia Tsigarides’ practice explores ideas of the body and desire through sculpture and writing. She is interested in the grotesque image that allows the body to spill out from its boundaries, creating something positive, liberating and sensual. Her use of language and materials is seductive yet unnerving. Mythology, nature and science fiction have influenced recent work, blurring the boundaries between body and landscape.

These three works on paper by Tsigarides have been made in recent weeks during the lockdown. Speaking about the context of these works and their relationship to pieces made in a pre-Covid-19 world, Tsigarides muses:

Due to pregnancy and lockdown it's been difficult to get into the studio, so I've started to turn towards more immediate forms of producing work... such as drawing at my kitchen table. It feels like a long time since I have done any drawing, so this feels like the perfect opportunity.

During a stressful time, it's really been therapeutic for me to get lost in these fantasy worlds, the detail and colouring allow me to go into a deeper relaxed state. I've been raiding the natural history section of my bookshelf, looking at the life hidden in the coasts and estuaries, reminding me of my childhood, being raised in a sea-side town. I find the inhabitants of the rocky shore fascinating, this rich ecosystem that depends on each other, intertwined, burrowed or encrusted, having to adapt to their ever changing environment - just like we are currently having to adapt to ours.

More surreal elements from the sci-fi movies and novels I have been looking at during lockdown have also started to creep in. I've been reading a lot, particularly books such as 'Hothouse’ by Brian Aldiss and ‘The Ruins’, by Scott Smith, focusing on the themes of global warming, plant horror and survival, which seem very relevant to now. I have been thinking about these drawings as habitats where my sculptures would live.

***
www.aliciatsigarides.com
@alicia_tsig

Alicia Tsigarides (b. 1988) is an artist living and working in London.
She graduated from MA Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 2016. Artquest awarded Alicia the Peer Forum opportunity at Camden Arts Centre in 2017, through which she established a peer mentoring group as a way to bring together artists to examine the representation of femininity within their work. She has been selected for residencies at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop (2014) and Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris (2015). In 2019 she completed a ceramic residency at Collective Matter, London which culminated in a solo exhibition 'The Ultimate Journey', at Sugarhouse Studios, London (2019). Other recent group exhibitions and events have included Creekside Open (2017), 'Terror Has No Shape', Camden Arts Centre (2018) and 'Owner of a Lonely Heart', Galerie l’inlassable, Paris (2019).