Catalogue Essay on Alexandra Haynes

14/06/16
A Geometry of Freedom
Essay in the publication to accompany 
Alexandra Haynes: The Shapes of Nature
Art First
16 June - 12 August 2016

Alexandra Haynes’ paintings speak of journeys. The organic, spiralling shells; the succulent cacti; the brightly coloured, tropical flowers, seaweed, fish and butterflies are all souvenirs of her travels: sometimes to places as far afield as Barbados or the Kimberley in Western Australia, other times just along the coast to Cornwall. But it is her body of work as a whole that represents the greatest journey – a journey of self-discovery and of finding, developing and learning to enunciate her own pictorial language.

Haynes had a meteoric rise to success when, at the age of twenty-one, she was ‘spotted’ by Brian Sewell during her mid-term exhibition at Cheltenham School of Art in 1987 and selected as one of ten young painters for the summer show of students and graduates promoted annually by You Magazine and The Mail on Sunday. As a direct result of this, she was asked to accompany restaurateur Peter Langan to Los Angeles to produce a series of canvases for his intended – but sadly never to be opened – restaurant there. Cheltenham were reluctant to let her go before having completed her degree, but Haynes, enthusiastic about this first prospect of transatlantic travel, was determined, and her adamancy paid dividends when she was introduced to and befriended by David Hockney.

Read the full essay in the catalogue, available from Art First and online here

Interview with Roxana Halls

09/05/15
Interview: Roxana Halls

Roxana Halls: Unknown Women
Hay Hill Gallery
5-30 May 2015 

Fifteen years ago, painter Roxana Halls (born 1974) walked into a disused theatre – now a bingo hall – in Streatham, south west London, and asked if they had a space in which she could make her studio. She was in luck and moved in to the old Bavarian Buffet at the top of the building. A little later, she upgraded to the Saloon Bar, where she still works today, surrounded by her collections of costumes and acquired theatrical paraphernalia. There is a strong element of performance in her work – and not just in the more explicit Cabaret series, or Roxana Hall’s Tingle-Tangle, which she produced for the National Theatre. Her paintings depict women, usually in some borderland, some liminal zone – balancing, juggling, or, in her latest series, Unknown Women, about to be shown at Hay Hill Gallery, London, with their faces concealed.

To read this interview, please go to: http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/roxana-halls-interview-unknown-women

Portfolio: Roxana Halls

14/09/14

Portfolio: Roxana Halls

Growing up, Roxana Halls wanted to be an actor – until she realised she was too shy. Luckily, at 16, she discovered painting. Theatre is still a vital part of her art, however, as her studio is the saloon bar of an old theatre, now bingo hall, in Streatham, and much of her work has theatrical themes. Tingle-Tangle, an exhibition at the National Theatre in 2009, was a celebration of all things cabaret, and recent commissions have been for large-scale canvases telling the stories of Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz.

All of her work has a feminist take and many pieces show teetering towers of precariously stacked objects, a comment on the precarious balancing act women must perform to uphold their facades in every day life. Her recent exhibition, Appetite, at Hay Hill Gallery, was filled with paintings of women eating, set on a sliding scale, with some scarcely daring to indulge and others displaying a voracious appetite. “This has nothing to do with eating disorders and body image,” Hall assures. “The food is a metaphor for life.”

 

Halls’ ideas come from all over and Carvery was inspired by Jack Monroe. Representing many of the foods with which Halls grew up, in her working class, east end family – savaloy, tinned spam, mushy peas and angel delight – it argues that people can make it good, regardless of their income.

With glowing reviews by Brian Sewell, a studio to beat all others, and commissions from the rich and famous, Halls has definitely proved this to be true. Her one wish? “To paint Kate Bush. Now that would be perfect!”

Roxana Halls: Appetite

Hay Hill Gallery

25 August - 26 September 2014

http://roxanahalls.com/home.html 

To see this portfolio in full, please buy the October issue of DIVA magazine