Spring 2023
Maggie Menghan Chen, Jen Roper, Gabriel Phipps, Naomi Boiko, Julie Maurin, Eva Dimitrakopolo
Maggie Menghan Chen
Maggie Menghan Chen (b. 1998, Beijing) lives and works in London. She obtained her MA degree in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts following her BA degree in Art History at New York University.
Maggie Menghan Chen explores the growth and metamorphosis of life in her sculpture works. Sampling from flora and fauna, Chen creates surreal hybrids signifying transmutations of life energy. Recreating upon nature, she hopes to capture the underlying wisdom of the earth, unconcerned of the rational human mind. Chen also sees her work as metaphors for the human psyche. The ferocity of beasts and delicacy of flowers represent the struggle between aggression and sensitivity in the mind.
Jen Roper
Revisiting moments of embarrassment in everyday life, the paintings explore a diaristic narrative of awkward encounters. The pictures take occupancy in reality, storytelling specific events and are reconstructed from memory. They purposefully make a spectacle of the uncomfortable and exploit the shame endured. Expressing the awkwardness when in at the centre of or witnessing the uncomfortable. I relate these small moments of dilemma to cringe comedy, playing on social awkwardness and mirroring the guilty pleasure found in watching them unfold. The comedic aspect of the paintings displays itself naturally, whilst working instinctively to allow humour to play out with deadpan expressions and blunt renditions.
I’m interested in exposure: an encounter goes awry and the protagonist (me); finds herself in the dreaded spotlight. These unpolished moments are a driving force for my practice, when the atmosphere is tense, and interactions become flawed. The figures are rigid and cartoonish imitating internal feelings of discomfort and emphasises a lighthearted approach to the depiction.
Gabriel Phipps
Gabriel Phipps graduated from The Glasgow School of Art with a first-class degree in Painting and Printmaking in 2020. His work has been exhibited at several shows in Glasgow. Painting, drawing, photography and plasticine are currently all key to his work. He investigates the theme of leisure and how people sometimes reveal a sense of disconnection or discontent when they are meant to be free from everyday pressures. He takes inspiration from artists including Seurat, Picasso, Fernando Botero and Lisa Brice.
Naomi Boiko
Naomi portrays a fragmented mythology using recurring symbols as an aid to unveil previously forgotten memories. Her intimate iconography reconciles her experience of loss, inviting ever-evolving reinterpretations of a personal mythology. The titles are mediated from conversations with her mother before she passed, and now late-night ones shared with her sister. The imagery is inspired by these not as a literal depiction, but an embodiment of the sensations that memories provoke but cannot put into words. Naomi is interested in how painting, combined with text fragments, empowers the re-experiencing of a moment.
In the work people emerge as otherworldly beings, perhaps they are ghosts, gods, or vessels. Naomi uses the medium of watercolour on stretched cotton, its sensitivity allows the work to hint at a forms perceptible outline without reducing it to a fixed image or narrative. The space embodies an unearthly presence, appearing and disappearing simultaneously.
Naomi Boiko-Stapleton completed her BA in fine art painting at Brighton university in 2022 and has exhibited in group exhibitions in the UK and internationally. Her work resides in private collections across the UK and abroad in Holland and the USA.
Julie Maurin
Julie Maurin (b. 1993 in Marseille, France) lives and works in London and received her MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art (London) in 2020. Recent solo exhibition include Soaking in Chemicals, Dungeon (Detroit, 2021). Selected group exhibitions include Nature Max, GIANT (Bournemouth, UK 2021), “Hope” is the thing with feathers, South Parade (London, 2021), Bless’ed Curse, Solo Show (Online 2021), TerrainVagues, Limbo Space (Geneva, 2021), Space Lapse, Royal Society of Sculptors (London 2021) and The days are just packed, The Pool (Istanbul, 2020).
Eva Dimitrakopoulou
Evangelia Dimitrakopoulou lives and works between London and Athens. Her work consists of multi-material installations, imperceptible infiltrations, piercing sounds and dominating constructions. The mix of the different elements signals ideas of transformation, invasions, quiet shifts, and alterations. She utilizes an underlying yet strong sense of intense control, submission, and sharpness. Everything becomes actively harmful.
Solo shows include: Phaneromene, Palfrey gallery, London (2020),To Host, The Change Room, London (2019), curated by Oana Damir. Her work has been included in group exhibitions and screenings such as Me and my friends part 1, curated by Andreas Mallouris, Korai project Space, Cyprus (2020), London Grads Now, curated by Januario Jano, Saatchi gallery, London (2020), Ways and Means at skelf.org (2020), Pou sou nefko pou paeis, Korai project space - Nicosia, Cyprus (2020), [heterotopias], Oen Gallery curated by Felice Moramarco, Kabelvag, Norway (2020), Thou do with me what you wish, DEPTFORD X, Take courage gallery, London (2019), The one that wasn’t invited, curated by Naz Balkaya, SB34 The Pool, Brussels (2019), LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH, Manyhands, London (2019), An earthly matter, curated by Margarita Kataga, Ileana Tounta Gallery, Athens (2018).
Evangelia was selected by Natasha Hoare, Curator at Goldsmiths CCA, artists Appau-Junior Boakye Yiadom and David Batchelor, and Charlie Coffey (Residencies & Awards Programme Manager, Acme) from a shortlist of six MFA graduate artists at Goldsmiths, University of London.