DIVING QUEENS Portraits of Resilience, April 20025, Phoenix Artsapce, Brighton
Sixteen paintings focuses on the tension between female agency, history, andexperience, by portraying women adorned with deep-seadiving helmets, ruffs, and boxing gloves. Drawing inspiration from Elizabethan and Flemish portraiture,the paintings blend tradition with the uncanny. Symbols of restriction and protection, such as the rigid ruff and isolating diving helmet, contrast with gestures of defiance and self-exploration. At the heart of the exhibition are the inscrutable Diving Queens; companion pieces that merge the motif of deep-sea diving with royal portraiture, embodying the roles of artist, woman, and lone explorer, navigating inner worlds. They invite you to ponder the nature of power and the slence imposed on women throughout history. These figures are heroines who are on the brink of discovery, caught between the familiar and the unknown. The paintings aspire to create a surface that is both inviting and challenging, describing a space where humour, vulnerability and strength collide