C Lucy R Whitehead British, b. 1991

C Lucy R Whitehead (b. 1991 Liverpool) is an artist living and working in London. After graduating from Camberwell College of Arts with a BA (Hons) in Drawing in 2013 she obtained an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art (2021). She was the recipient of the Basil. H. Alkazzi Scholarship in 2019-2021. She has shown extensively across London and Europe including the Mall Galleries, Saatchi Gallery and Cromwell Place. In 2022 she had two solo shows, her first at Incubator in London and second at Grove Collective also in London.

“My work explores themes of human embodiment–that is seeing the body as Itself and the body as the Other–through the physical act of painting. More specifically, I am interested in the times we encounter our body as the Other. Moments where we become abruptly and inescapably aware of how our physical self is not something we possess or control but rather something we inhabit. The bruising, the bloating and the blushing. The burning pinks and pulsing blues; the sagging, the swelling. In becoming aware of our physical misgivings and limitations, we establish our position in the world and what we can make of it. The canvas edge serves as a metaphor for these contingencies. Figures devoid of any discernible identity or gender squeeze into the boundaries of the picture plain, ultimately dictated by and succumbing to their existence. By allowing the work to evolve through the unpredictable nature of mark-making, these beings exist on a sliding scale of figuration and abstraction. What appears as a result are neither friend nor foe. Like catching a glimpse of yourself in the bath taps, they straddle the line between the familiar and the absurd, the joyous and grotesque, teetering on the edge of plausibility.”

–C Lucy R Whitehead