The Great Women Artists V

Katy Hessel and Edoardo Monti are delighted to present an exhibition of paintings and works on paper for The Great Women Artists V, the fifth iteration of our collaborative residency (2018–present), featuring Anna Calleja, Tali Lennox, and Sophie Ruigrok.  Anna Calleja (b.1997) is a Maltese painter who captures the intimacy of the world around her. She paints with a translucency, overlaid with scratchy textures, that heightens everyday scenarios. Full of tension, mystery, her works give precedence to the often missed moments that we can have with ourselves or loved ones, as well as speak to historic narratives entrenched in art.  ​​ On view are small paintings and works on paper that explore dualities: indoors and outdoors (often set at ‘twilight’ – a time of day fading into night); the self and the shadow; the self and the phone; plaited hair and string – twisting or tangling into each other; sharpness and softness (as seen in scissors cutting into a hand). Playing into the dual identities we have in or increasingly technological fuelled world – the one we present in person vs online, it seems Calleja is also exploring the dual identity of the artist – the one they present in person vs in their work.  Raised in a patriarchal, Catholic environment, Calleja grew up surrounded by images of female figures, such as the Virgin Mary, that created unrealistic idealisations, and expectations, for women. Playing on the Annunciation story, in ‘One fine day in the middle of the night (don’t worry the pain is normal)’, Calleja depicts the moment she was ‘cut’ from her previous life, and is forced to accept her new one. This is a typical occurrence in a woman’s life, as Calleja tells me: ”it is the burden that is given to you, that is quite painful, but you accept with grace and resilience”.  From a secular aspect, the painting can also be read in relation to the final figure of the three “Moirai” (the ‘fates’ in ancient Greek mythology, representative of the three parts of life). These three ‘fates’ are explored in the paintings alongside ‘One fine day…’: on the left we see a Calleja plaiting her hair (as if spinning the thread of life as ‘creation’); hands tangling string (as if measuring the thread of ‘life’); and finally the scissors harshly indenting the hand (cutting the string – as ‘death’).  Beside Calleja’s work are two studies of statues of the Virgin Mary by the London-born, Paris-based painter, Tali Lennox (b.1993). Crying crystal-like tears, Lennox’s Virgin Mary is given depth and emotion; framed by the weight of her white lace, she is forever immortalised through her hard, metallic surface.  Set in imaginary landscapes, with loose eyes, bows, pierced hearts and fragments of the body, Lennox's jewel-like works - that at times feel more like relics than paintings - bridge the ancient and the futuristic, gleaming in all their glory. Drenched in reds, whites, pinks and silver, they omit textures that range from watery to metallic, fleshy to misty; and present love, pain, tenderness, violence, sensuality, ritual, and more.  I'm amazed how she can 'still' something so fleeting like a firework, or diver plunging into water. It's as though her paintings capture the fantastical moments of our lives: the moments when, for a second, we are both in air and in water, and the sky is lit by glitter. They feel entrenched in traditions of both the Baroque and Surrealism, which gets me to question how these styles and movements speak to our world today; the role of religion and the desire to imagine and unlock our subconscious (the places deep in our heads). Glowing out of darkness, her paintings are objects to spend time with. Sophie Ruigrok (b.1992)  is a London based painter, hailed for her intimate studies of the body that present them as gem-like, gleaming in their golden glory. The paintings Ruigrok has created for the residency pulsate with a warm-blooded energy. Unsure of where hands end and other limbs begin, the image becomes a coalescence of flesh with textures that teeter between stone and skin. ‘Bodyache’ presents hands overlapping thighs, shins, knees or arms: the texture is golden, at times glistening, and is a study of the human body from a lens of touch. Although intimate, at times sensually so, the title ‘Bodyache’ suggests notions of tenderness, care, and the physical and emotional strain of the body.  Exhibited opposite – and side by side – ‘Licked Clean’ and ‘A Place That Feels Like Forward’, are smaller in scale, and docs on particular sections of the body.  ‘A Place That Feels Like Forward’ pictures feet suspended in space, lifted off from - or falling to - the ground, or in a state of transcendence. Full of movement, as echoed by the rush of brushstrokes in different tones of green, white, yellows and pinks, it is as though the painting evoke a different human state, one where the body is released of itself; caught between two worlds.  ‘Licked Clean’ is an ambiguous study of the back of a figure. Set in the same green space as ‘A Place That Feels Like Forward’, it is unclear whether the hand that softly touches the neck belongs to the figure, or is in fact someone else. As the title suggests, there is a cleanliness to the body, as if psychological/emotional layers have been scrubbed off, exposing the naked back, and presenting the figure as vulnerable.  © Katy Hessel / The Great Women Artists / Palazzo Monti