Back to Back brings together the work of painter, Nettle Grellier, and painter/sculptor Rafaela de Ascanio. The exhibition communicates the narrative of female experience through two distinctive bodies of work produced by each artist.
For Nettle Grellier, the female experience is centred upon themes of isolation which she explores through the solitary female figure. In many ways her paintings, which explore notions of intimacy, are focused on self-exploration. Her imaginary figures are humorously grotesque- an antidote to the male gaze. Rafaela de Ascanio, on the other hand, portrays the female in defiant guises, empowering both herself and the viewer, and will often present in the form of a Goddess. Both bodies of work serve to disrupt the patriachal narratives propogated throughout art history, using the female protagonist.
The role of nature plays an equally important part in both bodies of work to create a known world. de Ascanio draws on her experiences of growing up in the volcanic Canary Islands, drawing on the amalgamations of cultures and arid landscapes which she paints in a tropical colour palette. Grellier uses a similar luminescent colour palette inspired by her residency in Spain and uses nature to fill the empty spaces in her compositions. A worm takes refuge behind a foot so grounded that seedlings have begun to grow between the toes, and a slug disguises itself as a mountain range. The grotesque upsets the order of things, more aligned to fluidity both bodily and socially – giving way for physical intimacy and openness.
Back to Back is a series of duo exhibitions to take place from January - March 2021, seeking to create unpredictable dialogues between artists.
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Nettle Grellier
Nettle Grellier is a painter who focuses on themes of intimacy. In these paintings, part of a larger body of work made whilst undergoing personal transformation and reconfiguration during the pandemic, a sense of humour must be maintained. Resistance by way of tongues in cheeks and worms in nostrils. The grotesque upsets the order of things, more aligned to fluidity both bodily and socially – giving way for physical intimacy and openness. Nature fills the empty spaces; a worm takes refuge behind a foot so grounded that seedlings have begun to grow between the toes. One slug disguises itself as a mountain range and worms are sucked from juicy apples. The air is toxic but it looks beautiful. Lurid colours inspired by Southern Spain and Instagram influencers throw a strange light on the figures who are only there because they have survived the pandemic and all the rest; they’ve been so long in isolation they have forgotten how to behave in the presence of the viewer. Nature is reclaiming the earth, Daphne was turned into a Laurel tree by her father to save her from Apollo, he should have turned Apollo into a tree.
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Nettle Grellier, It won't help to be sad£800View more details
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Nettle Grellier, A single gesture£3,500View more details
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Nettle Grellier , There's nowhere to go, oh oh£800View more details
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Nettle Grellier, Bask in the afterglow£800View more details
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Nettle Grellier, DearSoldView more details
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Nettle Grellier£200View more details
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Nettle Grellier, These heady days£750View more details
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Nettle Grellier£100View more details
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Nettle Grellier, Mind your own business, then£900View more details
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Nettle Grellier, The weed puller£1,000View more details
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Nettle Grellier, You said you wouldn't and you fucking did£800View more details
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Nettle Grellier, Rural and bloody and weird and insular£695View more details
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Nettle Grellier , Hold onto it/ Every thought has a face£1,250View more details
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Nettle Grellier, So, so ( I can't find it )£6,000View more details
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Nettle Grellier , Eventually you think of everything£800View more details
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Nettle Grellier
5 o'clock shadow Oil on Canvas
153 x 117 cm -
Rafaela de Ascanio
Rafaela de Ascanio is a painter and sculptor whose art forms 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. De Ascanio sculpts by hand, morphing 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.
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Rafaela de Ascanio
Revelling in Duality Oil on Canvas
200 x 150 cm