Focus on the Female

29 July - 31 October 2021
  • Cynthia Corbett Gallery is proud to announce the launch of Young Masters’ new showcase, entitled Focus On The Female. Open from 20th July at The Exhibitionist Hotel (8-10 Queensberry Place, South Kensington, London, SW7 2EA), this curation had been made by women – with women – for everyone to appreciate and enjoy. As Young Masters is a powerful platform supporting and highlighting emerging artists, and as the pandemic affected women disproportionally more than men, we felt an initiative supporting women artists was more than timely and important.

     

  • With the precious help of our fellow artists and curators, we have created a survey of the artwork of 15 women artists, both established and emerging. It features Gallery-represented artists, Young Masters alumnae as well as artists we have never worked with before.

  • Jill Berelowitz

  • Jill was born in 1955 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She developed her passion for art at a very young age...

    Jill was born in 1955 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She developed her passion for art at a very young age and studied from the age of 12 under renowned Finnish artist Karen Jarozynska and then at Johannesburg School of Art. After graduating she set up her own studio in Durban and worked and taught there until moving to London in 1985. 

  • Berelowitz’s work finds its ultimate synthesis in a new work that moves away from the figurative and takes the quotidian form of the hourglass. Laid out on an under-lit table stand a vast array of hourglasses, each of which is cylindrical and has roughly the same proportions but they are different in size, and colour. The chambers inside them vary as well so that the time taken for the sand to run though each is different. A huge variety of patterns and timings can be constructed through the viewer picking them up and turning them, the trickle of sand elapsing and restarting like a silent orchestra. These are also undoubtedly feminine objects: the hourglass form is imbued with cultural relevance having been the dominant quantifying description of the ideal female body for centuries, whilst locked away in their resin casings the voids become the symbolic womb. However, not all of the cylinders contain sand, one contains Berelowitz’s version of a fertility deity, another a three-dimensional depiction of her DNA all of which impregnate the work with maternal sentimentality. The shape of the cylinders evokes that of specimen jars and their presentation is akin to a Victorian curiosities cupboard. Berelowitz’s own passion for collecting shows itself in this work and much like her Victorian forbears both her personal collections and her artworks show sensitivity for nature’s variety. They are a joyous celebration of life, change and for the endless potential of humanity, as is the case with all of Berelowitz’s work.

     

    In London Berelowitz has established herself as one of the City’s most innovative and prominent sculptures. She has monumental works installed outside Charing Cross Hospital and at Henley-on-Thames, and has been commissioned to make the Investec Challenge rugby trophy plus works for the Goldsmith’s Guild, Unilever and Old Mutual. She has been exhibited at Sotheby’s and Christie’s as well as the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Heathrow Terminal 5 and on Cork Street for Rado and Elizabeth Arden. Other exciting projects also include commissions for Westminster Council’s ‘City of Sculpture’ programme and for the entrance to the London 2012 Olympic Village.

     

  • Emilie Taylor

  • Emilie Taylor was born in 1980 in Sheffield, where she now lives and works. Her large scale ceramics use heritage...

    Emilie Taylor was born in 1980 in Sheffield, where she now lives and works. Her large scale ceramics use heritage craft processes, particularly traditional slipware, to interpret and represent post-industrial landscapes. Emilie is interested in the pot as container and metaphor for how we seek to contain different communities within society. Beyond the studio she works with the communities represented in her work, and through interdisciplinary projects hopes to apply the alchemical quality of ceramics in a socially engaged context. Emilie has completed residencies in the UK and abroad, and has exhibited at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Ruthin Craft Centre, Gallery Oldham and the Arts & Crafts House Blackwell. Her most recent solo exhibition (May Day, May Day, May Day) at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum concludes 11th of July 2021. Her work forms part of public and private collections.

  • Klari Reis

  • Klari Reis uses the tools and techniques of science in her creative process, constantly experimenting with new ways to apply...

    Klari Reis uses the tools and techniques of science in her creative process, constantly experimenting with new ways to apply materials and methods. She is driven by curiosity and her desire to explore and document the natural and unnatural with a sense of wonder and joy. Formally trained as an architect, the artist from her base in San Francisco (in proximity to one of the largest concentrations of life science/technology companies in the world) collaborates with local biomedical companies and is inspired by the cutting edge of biological techniques and discoveries. The unifying theme of Klari Reis’s art is her mastery of a new media plastic, epoxy polymer, and the fine control she brings to its reactions with a variety of dyes and pigments. Her compositions display brightly coloured smears, bumps and blobs atop aluminum and wood panels. A skilled technician with a studio for a laboratory, Reis uses science in the service of her art.

     

  • Klari Reis's work has been exhibited worldwide and public collections include Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK; Next World Capital’s offices in San Francisco, Paris, and Brussels; MEG Diagnostic Centre for Autistic Children in Oxford, UK; Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London; the Stanford University Medical Center Hoover Pavilion in California; and Elan Pharmaceuticals, Genentech, Acetelion and Cytokinetics in South San Francisco.

  • Klari Reis, Hypochondria, 30 pieces, Multicolored, 2019

    Klari Reis

    Hypochondria, 30 pieces, Multicolored, 2019
    Mixed Media, Petri Dishes, Tee Nuts and Steel Rods
    221 x 63.5 cm
    87 x 25 in.
  • Cristina Schek

  • Cristina Schek is the photosensitive kind. She thinks in pictures; her imagination is always in focus. A Transylvanian living in...

    Cristina Schek is the photosensitive kind. She thinks in pictures; her imagination is always in focus. A Transylvanian living in London, she creates worlds she calls "myth places”; they exist, each in their own ways. 

    Far removed from traditional or documentary photography, the camera is merely a tool for Cristina. She enjoys the freedom of layering and manipulating her photographs into creative montages, trusting her instinct for matching the raw material with the suggestive imaginings of her subconscious.

    Often whimsical and a touch romantic, her photographs are given subtle alterations in a digital process that often takes months, resulting in carefully constructed compositions, which reveal the influence of the great Surrealists and Old Masters.

  • 'Florence Lightingale' by Cristina Schek is a tribute to Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. Florence gained the nickname 'The Lady with the Lamp' during her work at Scutari. 'The Times' reported that at night she would walk among the beds, checking the wounded men holding a light in her hand.

     

    This work is part of a series Cristina created during the 2020 London Lockdown, titled “The Couchsurfing Series”. Each work is inspired by a particular Old Masters artwork dealing with isolation or the need to get out of the house.

     

    “During the Lockdown imagination was my preferred way of escaping restrictions and that's how I started creating work that would fuse the real with the surreal, permeating the everyday life in isolation with a sense of mystery. I was doing my travelling in between my ears.” says Cristina

     

    ‘Florence Lightingale’ received The FOCUS ON THE FEMALE Art Created During Lockdown Award.

     

    “Away from the worn-out out-of-date academic portrait of the female muse, Cristina Schek’s attention-grabbing images are inspired by literature and history. I marvel at her unique quirky portraits of modern life, in interiors brimming with warm comfy chintz and cosy furniture. But the real clout and muscle comes from the lone woman masked, in her flowing gown, inspiring powerful messages of caution for women today. Different to a man’s representation of the female, Schek inspires us to be the victor not the victim. As a woman, though the lens of her eye, she created a new, unique, visual language influencing and motivating us to be as progressive and visionary as we are. To be assertive, bold, self-assured powerful, and confident. To develop and enlarge our value(s). To think, feminist weight solid enough, in images not just of her, but of you and me, in Schek’s sumptuous, surrealistic, delightful imaginings.” Estelle Lovatt, FRSA

  • Cristina Schek, Pretty Fly For A Fungi In The Forrest, 2020

    Cristina Schek

    Pretty Fly For A Fungi In The Forrest, 2020
    Giclée Print on Hahnemühle
    Anti-Reflective Museum Glass
    60 x 60 cm
    23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in.

    62 x62 cm (framed)
    Edition of 30
  • Rafaela de Ascanio

  • Rafaela de Ascanio (b.1986, lives and works in London) studied at Central Saint Martins (2004), The Courtauld Institute of Art...

    Rafaela de Ascanio (b.1986, lives and works in London) studied at Central Saint Martins (2004), The Courtauld Institute of Art (MA, 2010) and Turps Banana Painting Programme (2019). De Ascanio’s paintings and sculptures work in tandem, compiling layers of iconography and exchanging symbols to explore the female experience through differing processes. Her paintings have a tropical colour palette, attributed to her early years spent in the volcanic Canary Islands. She hand-builds clay into anatomical forms that are glazed with flowing circular narratives and fired to create enduring stone bodies. De Ascanio portrays the female in defiant guises, empowering both her and the viewer. Images emerge from autobiographical events, fantastical symbols from sci-fi film and literature, esoteric pagan practices, and ‘fire and brimstone’ altarpieces. Disrupting the patriarchal narratives propagated throughout art history, she revisualises the female as the protagonist and leader, with sexual ownership, and psychological resilience.

  • Isabelle Van Zeijl

  • In a contemporary art world that condemns beauty as camouflage for conceptual shallowness, championing high aesthetics is nothing short of...

    In a contemporary art world that condemns beauty as camouflage for conceptual shallowness, championing high aesthetics is nothing short of rebellion. Dutch photographer Isabelle Van Zeijl takes female beauty ideals from the past, and sabotages them in the context of today. Van Zeijl aestheticises contemporary beauty in her work to visually discuss art historical links and a new way of seeing female beauty. Her work is both timeless, universal and uniquely placed in the art historical canon while offering the female gaze.

     

    Van Zeijl is invested in her images. By using subjects that intrigue and evoke emotion, she reinvents herself over and over and has created a body of work to illustrate these autobiographical narratives. Her work takes from all she experiences in life - she is both model, creator, object and subject. Going beyond the realm of individual expression, so common in the genre of self-portraiture, she strives to be both universal and timeless, with a subtle political hint.

     

    Isabelle Van Zeijl has shown work continuously and internationally over the past fifteen years, represented by galleries located in The UK, USA, The Netherlands, Belgium, and exhibiting at emerging and established international art fairs in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, London, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and Italy. She was nominated for the Prix De La Photographie Paris, and The Fine Art Photography Awards. She was also one of the winners of The Young Masters Emerging Women Art Prize, London. Her work is held in private & public collections in the USA, UK, Belgium, Germany, France and The Netherlands.

     

  • Isabelle van Zeijl, Be, 2019

    Isabelle van Zeijl

    Be, 2019
    C-print mounted on dibond, perspex face in tray frame

    113 x 103.1 cm
    44 1/2 x 40 1/2 in.
    Edition of 7 plus 3 artist's proofs
  • Xu Yang

  • Xu Yang (b. 1996, Shandong, China) graduated with 1st Class Honours in BA Painting at Wimbledon College of Arts (2018)...

    Xu Yang (b. 1996, Shandong, China) graduated with 1st Class Honours in BA Painting at Wimbledon College of Arts (2018) and MA Painting at Royal College of Art (2018-20). Xu was the winner of Barbican Arts Group Trust ArtWorks Open 2019 followed by a solo exhibition “100 Carat Diamond”, BAGT ArtWorks Project Space (2020). Xu has been nominated for the Contemporary Young Artist (2020); The Signature Art Prize (2019) and received the Highly Commended Award at the Air Gallery Open (2019). 
    Recent group exhibitions include “Reframing the Looking Glass”, Cuturi Gallery, Singapore, “42 Is”, 42 Art Space, China, “Redirecting”, Tree Museum China (2021), “Softer Softest”, Andrea Festa Gallery (2021), “wintergreen Boxwood”, No 20 Arts (2020); “London Grads Now.” (the RCA selection), Saatchi Gallery (2020); “RCA Graduate Showcase”, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery (2020); “Final Not Over”, Unit 1 Gallery (2020); “Little Originals”, Dock Street Studios (2019); “On the Mountain We Stay Residency End”, NoSpace Gallery (2019); “Open”, AIR Gallery (2019); Clyde & Co Art Award (2018) and Whitechapel Gallery First Thursday University Competition (2017). Xu was featured in Vogue Singapore, The Sunday Times, Elephant Magazine, ArtConnect, FAD Magazine, Exibart, Art She Says, Yngspc and many other publications. Xu has contributed to collaborative art projects ‘Imaging Technologies’ With Painting Research at Wimbledon College of Arts at Tate Modern (2017) and ’Here she Comes’ with Monster Chetwynd at Royal Festival Hall (2016).

  • Kathryn Maple

  • London-based Kathryn Maple studied Printmaking at Brighton University and undertook a six month residency at The Muse Gallery on Portobello...

    London-based Kathryn Maple studied Printmaking at Brighton University and undertook a six month residency at The Muse Gallery on Portobello Road before completing The Drawing Year at The Prince’s Drawing School (now the Royal Drawing School) in 2013. Kathryn won the 2014 Sunday Times Watercolour Competition and has exhibited in the Jerwood Drawing Prize, Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, at Christie's International for 'The Best of The Drawing Year 2012-13', and at the 'Betweenlands' exhibition hosted by Blain Southern in 2014. She lives and works in Erno Goldfinger’s iconic Balfron Tower, London, and is currently on the Royal Drawing School's International Teaching and Art Residency in India. The main focus of Maple's work has always been drawing. She acts as a hidden observer, using shape and line to paint those parts of the city where nature has been left to flourish and encroach on our concrete metropolis. Her work combines very fine detailing with areas of minimal working, the open spaces enabling the eye to focus on these marks. 

  • Eve De Haan

  • Eve De Haan is a young London-based artist of English and Mauritian heritage, with an incredible appetite for creativity. Her...

    Eve De Haan is a young London-based artist of English and Mauritian heritage, with an incredible appetite for creativity. Her degree in Theology has informed and influenced her work, developing a strong body of installations which examine concepts of change and the imprint technology is having on youth culture.

     

    She has exhibited in Europe and the U.S in iconic galleries such as the Saatchi gallery and the Museum of Neon in LA. She was recently invited to lead on an Instagram Live for Tate London. She has had billboards in London, created artwork for Nike & been featured in major publications.

     

    Her creations are provocative and challenging. Through her love of the written word Eve finds neon the perfect medium to explore the gradients and shades of meaning within a statement.

  • Eve de Haan, Text Me When You Get Home, 2021

    Eve de Haan

    Text Me When You Get Home, 2021
    Archival print, Hahnemuhle photo rag 308gsm paper
    25 x 38 cm
    9 7/8 x 15 in.
    Edition of 4
  • Nicole Etienne

  • US-born Nicole Etienne’s masterfully painted mixed media compositions fly across the canvas, exploding with vibrancy and sensuality. With a background in painting and photography, Etienne travels extensively, shooting the many elaborate and romantic settings that inspire her. She then manipulates her photography, tweaking each image to create a mystical entry point from which to continue her process. Once an image is printed, on either glitter or natural canvas, the real transformation begins. With thickly applied paint and other materials including gold leaf, glitter, even Swarovski crystals, Etienne adds powerful movement and extreme opulence to her base image, creating an intimate, unexpected moment in an extraordinary environment where anything is possible and the only limit is the imagination. Captivating us with dizzying skill and beauty, Etienne grants her audience full permission to dwell, delight and enjoy the fruits, flora and fauna of her exquisite labor.

    Nicole Etienne’s work is in numerous public and private collections. She earned her MFA from the New York Academy of Art and her BFA from the University of California Santa Cruz. Solo exhibitions of her work have been mounted in New York, Aspen, London, Dublin, Tokyo and Saint Barthélemy and she has been included in group shows and art fairs worldwide. Nicole Etienne currently resides in Henley-upon-Thames, having recently returned to the UK

  • Anne von Freyburg

  • Anne von Freyburg is a Dutch artist living and working in London. She received a Master degree in Fine Art...

    Anne von Freyburg is a Dutch artist living and working in London. She received a Master degree in Fine Art from Goldsmiths University London in 2016 and holds a BA in Fashion Design from ArtEZ Arnhem, The Netherlands. In 2018-2019 von Freyburg was part of the Florence Trust Residency and the FT Summer show in London. Her work was awarded for the Art Gemini Prize London. Von Freyburg was shortlisted for the Sarabande Foundation Residency and the Jackson’s Painting prize in 2020. Previously she exhibited in galleries in Holland, Germany and Spain.

     

    Anne von Freyburg’s practice rethinks textile and the decorative within the tradition of painting. It embraces and subverts the female gaze, the feminine and pretty. Historically, craft and decoration have been perceive as lesser than the “intellectual” fine arts. By combining them, von Freyburg challenges this underlying hierarchical system. Von Freyburg's recent work translates Old Masters paintings from the Rococo period into paintings constructed of a mixture of tapestry and contemporary fashion fabrics.

     

    With these works von Freyburg attempts to raise questions about taste, femininity, high and low art and the constructs of female identity. Her work is a celebration of the sensual, textural and visual pleasures of materials and ornaments.

     

    Von Freyburg’s work is in several private collections all over the world. Recently her work has been published in Art Scope magazine (US), Embroidery art magazine (UK), Textiel Plus magazine (NL), Art Verge, PAN and many others.

  • Anne von Freyburg, Untitled (After Fragonard) (Venus and Cupid), 2020

    Anne von Freyburg

    Untitled (After Fragonard) (Venus and Cupid), 2020
    Fabric painting: acrylic, spray-paint, synthetic-fabrics, tapestry- fabric, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding, and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas.

    Photography: Peter Hope.
    150 x 110 cm
    59 1/8 x 43 1/4 in.
  • Tami Bahat

  • Israel-born, New York-based Tami Bahat's portraiture is fuelled by a deep love for imperfect beauty and the belief that art...

    Israel-born, New York-based Tami Bahat's portraiture is fuelled by a deep love for imperfect beauty and the belief that art is in everyone. As a conduit to other lifetimes, she constructs stories of the past through the people of her present-day life. Inspired by the Old Masters, the series Dramatis Personae exhibits her personal connection to history and a deep longing for times that no longer exist.

    Most recently Bahat has had solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, Australia and Chicago, and her work has been shown in prominent photography events, including Fotofever Paris, Scope NY, The Photography Show (AIPAD), as well as the LA Art Show. 

     

    In 2019 Tami Bahat won the 2nd prize for the Young Masters Emerging Woman Artist Award.

  • Deborah Azzopardi

  • Deborah Azzopardi acquired her worldwide fame for the joyous Pop Art images she has created over the past 35 years....

    Deborah Azzopardi acquired her worldwide fame for the joyous Pop Art images she has created over the past 35 years. Her unique and feminine take on contemporary art is best described by the esteemed art critic Estelle Lovatt: ‘America has Lichtenstein, we have Azzopardi!’ Lovatt goes on to comment: “Sometimes you just want to curl up under a blanket. With a good book. A piece of chocolate. A man. This is what Deborah Azzopardi’s pictures make me feel like doing. They are me. They remind me of the time I had a red convertible sports car. I had two, actually. And yes, they are you, too. You immediately, automatically, engage with the narrative of Azzopardi’s conversational visual humour. Laughter is the best aphrodisiac, as you know. ... There’s plenty of art historical references from... Manet’s suggestive ‘Olympia’; Boucher’s thought-provoking... ‘Louise O’Murphy’ and Fragonard’s frivolous, knickerless, ‘The Swing’.... Unique in approach, you easily recognise an Azzopardi picture. ... Working simple graphics and toned shading (for depth), the Pop Art line that Azzopardi sketches is different to Lichtenstein’s. Hers is more curvaceous. Feminine.

    The world is familiar with Azzopardi’s artworks, as many of them have been published internationally. Her original paintings, such as the Habitat ‘Dating’ series (2004/08), the iconic ...One Lump Or Two? (2014) and Love Is The Answer (2016), created by the artist at the request of Mitch and Janis Winehouse as a tribute to their daughter, are in great demand.

  • The world is familiar with Azzopardi’s artworks, as many of them have been published internationally. Her original paintings, such as...

    The world is familiar with Azzopardi’s artworks, as many of them have been published internationally. Her original paintings, such as the Habitat ‘Dating’ series (2004/08), the iconic ...One Lump Or Two? (2014) and Love Is The Answer (2016), created by the artist at the request of Mitch and Janis Winehouse as a tribute to their daughter, are in great demand.

  • Amanda McCavour

  • Based in Toronto, Amanda McCavour is a Canadian artist who works with stitch to create large-scale embroidered installations. She holds...

    Based in Toronto, Amanda McCavour is a Canadian artist who works with stitch to create large-scale embroidered installations. She holds a BFA from York University, where she studied drawing. In May 2014, she completed her MFA in Fibers and Material Studies at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA. From 2007 through 2010, McCavour was an Artist-in-Residence at Harbourfront Centre’s Craft & Design Studio. Her work has been exhibited in galleries nationally and internationally, with recent solo exhibitions in 2019 Pink Field, Blue Fog at the Art Gallery of Northumberland, Cobourg (ON); Consumed by Clouds at the Kootenay Gallery of Art, History and Science, Castlegar (BC); The Floating Gardenat Workhouse Arts Centre, Lorton (VA); and Pink Field, Blue Fog at Washington Pavilion Visual Arts Center, Sioux Falls (SD). Upcoming projects for 2021 include new installations for Paige Court, Chazen Museum of Art, Madison (WI) and The Delaplaine Arts Center, Frederick (MD). She is also working towards a commission for Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia (SC) in 2022. McCavour has received numerous awards and scholarships from the Ontario Crafts Council, The Canada Council for the Arts, The Handweavers and Spinners Guild of America, The Ontario Society of Artists, The Surface Design Association, and The Embroiderers Guild of America.

  • Rebecca Harper

  • Rebecca Harper was born in London in 1989, where she continues to live and work. She studied at UWE Bristol...

    Rebecca Harper was born in London in 1989, where she continues to live and work. She studied at UWE Bristol then The Royal Drawing School and Turps Art School (Postgraduate’s). Rebecca was Artist in Residence at The Santozium Museum, Santorini, in summer 2019, and Artist in Residence for the Ryder Project Space at A.P.T Studios, Deptford in 2018-19 before becoming a studio and committee Member in 2019. 

     

    Much of Rebecca Harper’s work has revealed itself through a Diasporic consciousness which can often involve a multiplicity of belonging and a sense of difference, often one of ‘otherness’ and displacement. The identity of the displaced positioning is a paradox between location and dislocation, out of place everywhere and not completely anywhere. Generally, the work frames expressions of ‘being’ and manifests itself within an unfolding, wondering, allegoric commentary on the locations that she inhabits and those which inhabit her.

     

    Rebecca Harper artwork is courtesy of Anima Mundi gallery.

  • Harper was winner of the ACS Studio Prize in 2018. Most recently Rebecca was selected for The John Moore’s Painting Prize 2021, and previously selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2018 at South London Gallery, Other curated shows include Artsy, Huxley Parlour, Public Gallery, Royal Academy Summer Show, Christies London and NYC, Flowers Gallery, Paul Stolper Gallery, Turps Art Gallery and Arusha Gallery. Her work is on long term display in the Albright Collection at Maddox Street Club in London curated by Beth Greenacre and at the Santozeum Museum in Santorini. Harper is represented in many public and private collections internationally including the Ullens and the Royal Collections.

  • For all sales enquiries please contact Cynthia Corbett, Gallery Founder & Director, at

    info@thecynthiacorbettgallery.com.

     

    View Work List Here

     

    All Install photography by Cristina Schek