Art to adorn... ANTONIA SHOWERING
THE ARTIST REVEALS HER INSPIRATION, THE PAINTING PROCESS AND WHY SHE STILL ‘CO-PARENTS’ HER PAST WORK
With her first solo exhibition opening at the Union gallery in Bethnal Green this month, 28-year-old painter Antonia Showering is the new darling of the London art world. Using a style called ‘pentimento’, she stacks compositions and colours to create her epic canvases. ‘All my paintings are trying to capture the ephemeral nature of memory,’ she says. ‘I work on them until I feel the emotion of what I’m trying to convey is tangible.’ Growing up, Showering was encouraged by her architect grandfather to pick up a sketch book, with artists Amedeo Modigliani and Alice Neel her biggest influences. She went on to study at Chelsea College of Arts, City & Guilds and Slade School of Fine Art. ‘What drew me to Slade was that the Bloomsbury Group all went there. It’s magical to imagine those creatives taking the same journey as me.’ Preparing for her first show has meant that Showering, the winner of last year’s New Contemporaries’ Studio Bursary, has been able to focus on her work as a collective body for the first time. However, selling her paintings is still bittersweet, ‘I find it really sad parting with paintings because they’re all so personal,’ she says. ‘I always try to stay in touch with the owners of my paintings and we co-parent the pieces.’
“I FIND IT SAD PARTING WITH PAINTINGS, THEY’RE ALL SO PERSONAL”