Artist: Celia Paul

Victoria Miro presents an exhibition in Venice of new paintings by Celia Paul, examining the act of looking and being looked at.

The exhibition coincides with the publication of a new book by the artist, Objects of Desire: An Artist in Venice, a painter’s memoir of obsession, loss and creation during a residency in Venice.

The pivotal subject of both the book and the exhibition is Giorgione’s La Tempesta (1503–1504), on view in the Gallerie dell’Accademia, which interested Paul because of the dynamic between the figure of a man and a breastfeeding woman. In 2023, Paul painted an interpretation of La Tempesta, which she titled That Obscure Object of Desire, the same title as Luis Buñuel’s 1977 surrealist film, noting how the film and the painting share dreamlike qualities and are rich with symbolism. The new paintings in this exhibition continue her fascination with the complex relationship between the observer and the observed.

Objects of Desire: An Artist in Venice by Celia Paul.

Alone in Venice for an artist’s residency, Celia Paul records her daily painting practice. Her days are both charged with and interrupted by the turmoil she feels over her husband’s death and by a later obsession with a younger man.

Inspired by the art, literature and light-filled atmosphere of the city, Paul’s meditations on love, creation, ageing and belonging are interwoven with vivid explorations of artists and writers connected to Venice. An act of profound and deeply personal observation, Objects of Desire reveals more with each reading: a window on to a life devoted to art and a self-portrait of an artist who longs to look unflinchingly at herself – and invites us to do the same.