The group exhibition Chorus brings together six extremely talented and deeply unique artists who work in the genre of figuration. Spanning five countries and two decades, the variation in approach, execution, and material in these works demonstrates the range of possibility within figuration, and how personal the influences that shape these practices are.
Ewa Czwartos (b. 1998), from Sucha Beskidzka, Poland, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków in 2023. Her work in Chorus features repeated female figures, whose eye contact is direct and unwavering. These powerful depictions demonstrate how Czwartos’ background shapes her ongoing practice, which contains a feminist approach inspired by the experience of contemporary women in Poland, and the difference in generations. Corn Dollies references the specific Polish mythological figure of Marzanna: a straw woman dressed in all white, who watches over and protects the harvest, playing a key role in Polish agriculture.
Yoora Lee (b. 1990), from South Korea, graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with an MFA in 2020. Lee was inspired by her childhood growing up in the 90s I South Korea, in a period of transition from analogue to digital. The pencil markings in her works on paper in Chorus, such as in Still Crossing, are inspired by patterns made on the tv during glitches. Her background also shapes her practice, with influences from listening to City Pop, a niche genre of Japanese pop music, and watching animes.
Marina Priyomova (b. 1989), from Ukraine, graduated from the British Higher School of Art and Design with a BA in Fine Art in 2019. Her approach to figuration is automatically deeply personal, as the works are inspired by her own memories being triggered by certain sounds and visions. Because of this unstructured inspiration, figures are often painted and covered up, mimicking the loose nature of memory, as seen in This is a Girl From a Dangerous Town. She paints onto burlap – a material rooted in Ukrainian agrarian culture – physically bringing her work into her culture and identity.
Eleanor Johnson (b. 1994), from the UK, graduated from City & Guilds of London Art School with an MA in Fine Art in 2023. Her semi-abstracted figurative works take a deep inspiration from Baroque painting, but this is shaped by her own personal interest in instability. The result, like Untitled (Diptych), is highly textured and stylised compositions full of overlapping figures and unfinished borders, with a clear exploration into the body, flesh, and movement. Naked figures melt into one another as well as the yellow background, creating a sense of dynamism and physical contact.
Julia Moon (b. 2002), from South Korea, graduated from the Ruskin School of Art, with a BFA in Fine Art in 2023. Her practice begins with an exploration of fluid identities through her materially fluid bodies. In Woman on a Chair we see the semi-abstracted body existing both on the chair but also appearing to be melting off it, with areas of the body in high-focus and some seemingly in motion. This flux of state is inspired by Moon’s own mixed identity, being born in South Korea, raised in Canada, and now working between Seoul and London.
Jack Penny (b. 1988), from Chichester, UK, studied Illustration at the University of Brighton. His work often features scenes with uniformed chefs and waiters around tables, in hectic high-end restaurants, such as the one in Formalities. His tongue-in-cheek approach is twofold – he’s interested both in the anonymity that is created when we put on a uniform, but also in pointing out the farcical nature of London’s hustle culture, and his own discomfort in large groups of people in one place.
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