C. Lucy R. Whitehead — GROVE London + Berlin

C. LUCY R. WHITEHEAD

C. Lucy R. Whitehead (b. 1991, Liverpool, UK) completed her BA (Hons) in Drawing at Camberwell College of Arts in 2013 before receiving her MA Painting from the Royal College of Art, a recipient the Basil H. Alkazzi Scholarship, 2019-2021. Prior to her MA, Whitehead lived and worked between London and Germany.

Whitehead draws many of her motifs from lived experience, using the vagaries of personal and professional relationships to inform the lens through which she perceives her subjects. Often working with the body as a site of a projection, and accordingly, distortion, her figures become fragmented and fluid, responding to Lucy’s desire to capture human essence, as opposed to detail. In doing so, Whitehead’s forms appear at once abstract and familiar, both unrecognizable yet movingly personal. Read full CV here.

Whitehead writes of her works:

“My work explores themes of embodiment, that is the body as Itself and the body as the Other. More specifically, I am interested in the moments where we encounter our own bodies as the Other. Jean-Paul Sartre cites the feeling of shyness (or personal alienation) as a unique example of this, whereby in order to feel shy the Other must be present; it is the Other which makes us aware of our body Itself.

It is the body’s actions and reactions to feelings such as this that I am particularly intrigued by. Put otherwise, moments where we become abruptly and inescapably aware of how our bodies are not something we own, but rather something we inhabit. The burning pinks and pulsing blues; the glistening droplets of panic on the skin, the sagging and the swelling, bloating, and blushing.

In becoming aware of our physical misgivings and limitations, we establish our position in the world and what we can make of it. The canvas edge serves as a metaphor for these contingencies. Figures devoid of any discernible identity or gender squeeze into the boundaries of the pictorial plane, ultimately succumbing to their existence.

These beings exist on a sliding scale of figuration and abstraction. What appears as a result are neither friend nor foe. Like catching a glimpse of yourself in the bath taps, they straddle the line between the familiar and the absurd, the joyous and grotesque, teetering on the edge of plausibility; their backs turned in public vulnerability of the Other and private defiance of Itself.”

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SELECTED WORKS

C. Lucy R. Whitehead, Domestic Bliss, 2022, Oil on Canvas, 105 x 95 cm, (CLRW-041022)

C. Lucy R. Whitehead, Purpose Built, 2022, Oil on Canvas, 140 x 200 cm, (CLRW-021022)

C. Lucy R. Whitehead, Paper Weight, 2022, Oil on Canvas, 75 x 45 cm, (CLRW-090722)

C. Lucy R. Whitehead, When The Hammer Breaks, 2022, Oil on Canvas, 105 x 105 cm, (CLRW-060722)

PREVIOUS EXHIBITIONS @ GC

Stranger. (Solo)
13/10/22 - 19/11/22
Four Painters and a Photographer @ Backhaus Projects (Group)
09/07/22 - 24/07/22

A Body of Work (Group)
10/02/22 - 05/03/22
Fragmented Intimacy (Group)
04/03/21 - 12/03/21

SELECTED OTHER EXHIBITIONS

When The Hammer Breaks (Solo), 2022, Incubator 22, London, UK
London Grads 2021 (Group), 2021, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK