Open: Mon-Fri 9am-5pm by appointment

95 Bell Street, NW1 6TL, London, United Kingdom
Open: Mon-Fri 9am-5pm by appointment

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Artist: Judy Clarkson

Judy Clarkson's solo exhibition presents a series of paintings of women, each portrayed with an extraordinary intensity and psychological tenderness. The mood or message of each piece, cannot be defined, rather experienced. Clarkson works each image with multiple layers of oil paint creating a unique and visceral surface: it is only by seeing these pictures in the flesh, that the physical energy of her painting style can be appreciated. Skeins of colour and fluid brush strokes resolve into skin, hands, faces. Vulnerability, psychic weight, the precarious nature of being alive: her subjects wrestle with and negotiate the human condition. Often mysterious, somehow inexplicable, nevertheless her images have a quality that can be instantly related to. Her compositions frequently form a spiral of face and limbs inviting contemplation, drawing the viewer into an empathic relationship with the image. Through open-ended narratives and implied drama the audience is inspired to bring their personal interpretation to the picture. Clarkson speaks of 'sculpting with paint, of building another who becomes myself'. For her, these are more than paintings: they are souls.

Born in Yorkshire, Clarkson is now London based. She has won numerous awards, most recently the Hunger Magazine Award 2026 and the Paula Rego Painting Prize from Women in Art Prize 2025.

all images © the gallery and the artist(s)