Underlying my work is a concern for the body. A body that is porous, connected to other people and our environment, formed and marked by the process of living. I look to the inner world of the body, not as a separate universe, but as a ‘transducer’ of lived experience. Just as the natural world is in a constant state of flux and transformation, so are we.
My work travels between the extremes of extinction and redemption, my paintings charged with the desire to find new worlds, to escape, to transform. I look for transcendence in the material of this world and to the imagination. I often work in monochrome, in between light and dark - the crepuscular - when the visible and the imagination merge in the half-light and what might have been dormant in the imagination finds life.
I make paintings through erasure, wiping back, to reveal fragments that catch on the imagination. The wipe back is always double, being both removal and a gesture creating form. I am interested in the hidden, camouflaged and masked. The perceptual movement in a painting of there and not there, fragments, slippage.
The medieval monstrous has informed both paintings and works on paper. Like the crepuscular, the monster sits on the cusp between states - that of the known and unknown. Situated in the margins of language in the space of interpretation, the monster speaks of things that cannot be spoken and points to the irrational and knowledge that can be found outside logic . The Perfect Cannibal series, made in the decade after completing a Masters at Goldsmiths College, was a first attempt to consider questions of existence and consciousness, to ask who or what is alive. I can now see that I was also attempting to consider my own existence. The paintings are escape-hatches; they are bodies that communicate things I cannot, life forms that are hybrid, human and non-human. Expressions of edges and space and what lies beyond.
In recent years I have I worked with drawing and collage as a process to explore and reveal the complex and often subtle forms of violence, coercion and oppression that may pervade the domestic spheres of our lives, drawing on personal history. Who wields power, controls, decides who may speak and what is hidden, camouflaged or displayed. Through the process of drawing, characters emerge which seem to wish to speak. In Untethering, a recent work, I work with life-sized paper figures I call 'embodiments' attempting to give them voice.
When I paint I am trying to find the other, a subject, entity or quasi life form in the painting. I wish to see what it may say. The painting appears to me to bulge out beyond the plane and occupy the space in front of it. Sometimes it occupies the same space as myself. I push against finitude, attempting to extend the limits of possibility through the material of the imagination. The imagination is a sticky mobile material that infiltrates, penetrates and clings to the material of the painting. It makes visible what otherwise would be hidden from sight. I am drawn towards the fantastic, the marvellous and fantasy - exploring the transcendent possibilities of the imagination.
Education
2011 MPhil, Painting Dept., Royal College of Art, London
2004 MFA Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, London
1999 B.A.(Hons), Fine Art Painting, University of Brighton
Selected exhibitions & other activities
2023 Asylum Studios Gallery, Artist in Residence, Bentwaters Park, Suffolk. 14th - 19th August.
2023 Newhaven Art Projects, window exhibition, Newhaven, E.Sussex, 17-30 March.
2023 Rose Garden, group exhibition at Terrace Gallery, Patchworks, 258 Church Rd, London E10 7JQ. Curated by Tony Benn & Glenn Ward. February 16 - March 12th.
2022 Nadine Feinson & June Nelson, two-person show, Gallery 207, High Street, Lewes. 8th - 11th September
2022 Open Plan, Towner Gallery, Eastbourne. Group Residency. 1-6th August
2021 Newhaven Open, The Ship Hotel, Newhaven, E. Sussex. Curated by Nick Bush, Nick Marsh and Helen Turner. September.
2021 NU Artists, group exhibition. Lewes Artwave Festival, East Sussex. September 11 - 12th
2020 Words that transform, vibrate and glow: 13 paintings inspired by the lyrics of Nick Cave, Charlie Smith London. Curated by Angela Koulakoglou. January 17 February 8
2018 Sussex Open 2018, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, 21 July - 30 September
2018 Multidisciplinary drawing exhibition, University of Brighton, 9-29 March
2016 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Nagoya University of Arts, Japan, Dec 9-14
2016 Slippery & Amorphous NYC, Exchange Rates - International Bushwick Exposition 2016, Brooklyn, NY. Curated by Paula MacArthur and Wendy Saunders. 20 - 23 October.
2016 Slippery & Amorphous, Contemporary British Painting, The Crypt, Marylebone, London. Curated by Paula MacArthur and Wendy Saunders. 11 January - 26th March.
2015 Surface to Air, & Model Gallery, Leeds. Curated by Mark Wright. 12th November - 12th December.
2015 Surface Value, James Freeman Gallery, London. Curated by Mark Wright. 8 - 31st October.
2015 Material Tension, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London. Curated by Lucy Day & Eliza Gluckman of A Woman’s Place. 5 March - 16 June
2014 SPV Ltd - Sub-Cell, The Records Office, Old Police Cells, Brighton. Curated by Rosie Hermon. 5th-6th December. (See section on collaborative work below.)
2014 SPV (Trans-Channel) Ltd. Contemporary art festival curated by Alice Schÿler Mallet and Amélie Mourgued’Algue Supported by Ministère de la Culture and Arts Council of England. (The performance took place on the cross-channel ferry between Newhaven and Dieppe on August 19. (See section on collaborative work below.)
2014 RIFF/RIFT, BALTIC 39, (project space, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art), Newcastle. Abstraction in the expanded field of painting. Curated by Matthew Hearn, Thomas Whittle and Sebastian Trend. 11 Dec 2013 – 23rd March 2014
2013 Dirty Pop, &Model Gallery, Leeds. Curated by Mark Wright. May 2 – June 8
2012 100 Curators 100 Days. The painting ‘See Red’ selected by curator Emma Dean of the BALTIC, Gateshead, for a Saatchi online exhibition, July 18 - November
2012 Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, London (requested submission from curator Tess Jaray). June 4 – August 12
2012 (De)constructions, Rollo Contemporary, London, March 14 – April 27
2012 Contemporary Art Society loan collection, Circle Hospital, Bath, in collaboration with Hoxton Art Gallery, February 2012 - January 2013
2011 NEW-Latest Work by ROLLO Artists, Rollo Contemporary, 51 Cleveland Street,London
Sep 15-Nov 04,
2011 Memento Mori, Hoxton Art Gallery, London. September 15 – October 6
2011 [Solo Show] Decoy Paintings, The Gallery, Idea Store, Whitechapel, London. Curated by Sotiris Kyriacou. September 2 - October 9
2011 [Two-person show] Day Trip to Hastings, LIDO Project Space, St. Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex. Show with Dylan Shipton (arts council lottery funded). July 16 – August 7
2011 Lights Are On But Nobody’s Home, Standpoint Gallery, London. Curated by Fiona MacDonald, London. June 24 – July 30
2011 Polemically Small - on paper, The Future Can Wait, Torrance Art Museum, CA, USA. Curated by Zavier Ellis, Edward Lucie-Smith, Max Presneill & Simon Rumley, May 28 – June 25
2010 New British Painting, Gallery Kalhama & Piippo Contemporary, Helsinki. (supported by the British Council, in collaboration with Charlie Smith Gallery, London.) 21 May – 20
2010 Le Weekend Sept Jour, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Feb 13/20
2009 On the Edge, Rollo Contemporary Art, London, April 21 - May 29
2008 The Future Can Wait 08, Old Truman Brewery, London. Curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley. October 15 – 19
2008 Travelogue, One in the Other Gallery, Vyner St., London. Curated by Sotiris Kyriacou, September 5 - October 5
2008 New London School, Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, LA. Curated by Zavier Ellis, Max Presneill & Simon Rumley, April 5
2008 Shadowy, Standpoint Gallery, London. Curated by Fiona MacDonald. Jan 18 – Feb16
2007 The Future Can Wait, Old Truman Brewery, London. Curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley. October 9 – 14
2007 Avatar of Sacred Discontent, (touring), T1+2 Gallery, London. Curated by Wolfe Lenkiewicz and Flora Fairbairn. September 14 - October 19
2007 Salon 2007: New British Painting, 319 Portobello Road, London. Curated by Flora Fairbairn and Sotiris Kyriacou. March 9 – 31
2006 New London Kicks II, Wooster Projects, New York. Curated by Simon Rumley and Ed Burke. November 16 - December
2006 Beauty and the Beast, Fieldgate Gallery, London. Curated by Richard Livingston & Laura White. September 8 –October 1
2006 New London Kicks, Soho House, New York. Curated by Simon Rumley. March 10 – 11
2006 Altered Beast, Three Colts Gallery, London. Curated by John Stark. February 11 – 26
2005 Yabadabadoo, Cell Project Space, London. Curated by Juan Bolivar, October 15 – November 13
2005 We Have Left the City Gates, The Nunnery, London. Curated by JJ Charlesworth. June 18 – July 16
2005 Georgina Amos & Nadine Feinson, Toni Heath Gallery, 10 Lambs Conduit Passage, London. April 3-30
Collections
UBS Art Collection, the private collection of Robert Devereux, The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, Public Catalogue Foundation Arts Charity, Kolon Art Collection, Korea. Private collections in the UK, France, Switzerland, USA and Italy.
Art Fairs
2017 Sluice, London/PIY PaintLounge, 30th Sep - 3rd October
2013 London Art Fair (Art Projects), Islington/Hoxton Art Gallery. Jan 16 – 20
2009 Volta5 Basel/One in the Other Gallery, Vyner St., London, June 8 – 13
2009 Art Chicago/One in the Other Gallery, Vyner St., London, May 1 - 4
2008 Pulse Miami/One in the Other Gallery, Vyner St., London, Dec 3 – 7
2006 Zoo Art Fair/The Great Unsigned, London, October 13 – 15
Residencies
2023 Asylum Studios Gallery, Artist in Residence, Bentwaters Park, Suffolk. 14th - 19th August.
2022 Open Plan, Towner Gallery, Eastbourne. Group Residency. 1-6th August
2011 LIDO Project Space, St. Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex. Residency with Dylan Shipton followed by exhibition (arts council lottery funded). July 16 – August 7
Collaborative Work
2012-2014 SPV Ltd (performance)
I am a founding member of SPV Ltd., which was set up in 2012 by Claire Makhlouf Carter, Apollo Korzeniowski Aabye, Nadia Visram and myself to perform and problematise financial transactions in order to question labour and economic devices. SPV Ltd offered a tax-free haven and a shoe cleaning franchise opportunity. Performances took place during a number of art and non-art events.
2013 LUPA EVENT, Lock Up Performance Art, SPV Ltd - Providers of a Tax Haven, Curated by Aaron Williamson, Jordan McKenzie, Kate Mahony and Rachel Dowle
Competitions/Prizes
2018 Stage 2 of the John Moores Painting Prize with the painting 'Podsolnukh (Every Day's a Sunny Day)'
2018 & 2012, Sussex Open, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, 21 July - 30 Sept.
2012 Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, London (requested submission from curator Tess Jaray). June 4 – August 12
Grants/Awards
2014 SPV (Trans-Channel) Ltd, Anglo-French Art Festival. Supported by Ministère de la Culture and Arts Council of England
2011 Lottery Funding/Arts Council Funded and East Sussex County Council Funding for ‘Day Trip to Hastings’, LIDO Project Space, St. Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex
2006 Arts council funding, ‘Altered Beast’, Three Colts Gallery, London, 11 – 26 February
Publications
Books:
2018 'PaintingDigitalPhotography: Synthesis and Difference in the Age of Media Equivalence', ed. Carl Robinson, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018 (ISSN 978-1-5275-1110-1). Essay 'Painting in the Digital Age: Redefining the Medium's Relationship to its History, Materiality, and Ideas of the Temporal' by Mark Wright.
2013 '100 London Artists', Vol. 1: 50 Painters, iArtbook published by curator Edward Lucie-Smith and Zavier Ellis.
Contributed to:
2016 Journal of Contemporary Painting, Vol.2 No.2, ed. Rebecca Fortum. ISSN 2052-6695. Review of 'Painting in Time', The Tetley, Leeds, 3 April-5 July
2013 /seconds Issue 13 - 'The Subjectile: Collapse, Betrayal and Subterfuge', http://www.slashseconds.co.uk/edition-13/. Contrib. 'Cosmotop Series 5080'
(http://www.slashseconds.co.uk/nadine-feinson/30/113/submission/cosmotop-series-5080/). Edited by Peter Lewis and Peter Fillingham
2011 Publication alongside the exhibition ‘Day Trip to St. Leonards on Sea’ as part of a series of pamphlets published by LIDO Projects, St. Leonards on Sea, East Sussex.
2010 Catalogue ‘Le Weekend Sept Jour’, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris
2010 /seconds Issue 12: Archetype: Going Underground/The Cruel Scene of the Image. Contrib. 'Painting the Perfect Cannibal'. Online publication at www.slashseconds.org edited by Peter Lewis
2007 /seconds (edition v): "Multitude: Handbook for Disobedience". Contrib. 'Painting in Multitude', www.slashseconds.org, online publication initiated and edited by Peter Lewis and Derek Horton, May 2007
Conferences/Symposiums/Panels
2017 'Palette & Colour', PIY PaintLounge Sluice Biennial. Panel discussion with Katrina Blannin, Nadine Feinson and Ruth Philo. 12.30pm 3rd October.
2016 'What Painting Knows', Wimbledon College of Art, London. Paper on research and panel discussion with Simon Burton, Kaye Donachie, Mark Fairnington and Nadine Feinson, 21st January.
2015 'Painting in Time' Symposium, 4th July, The Tetley, Leeds. Paper on painting as a temporal medium.
Research
2011 MPhil Thesis, Royal College of Art, Blot: The Material Conditions of Appearance in Painting (http://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/1547/)
Professional Development
2001 ETA Networking Scheme set up by Deborah Rawson, mentoring by artist Monica Ross, Brighton.
Teaching
Senior Lecturer, Fine Art Painting Dept., University of Brighton, 2014 - August 2018.
Visiting Lecturer
2018 University of Brighton, Fine Art Painting Dept - 26th October, 2nd and 9th November
2018 Greater Brighton Metropolitan College, Fine Art - 4th December
2018 West Kent College, Fine Art - 15th November
2016 Wimbledon College of Art, Painting Dept. - 21st January
2013 - 2014 University of Brighton, Fine Art Painting Dept
2012 London Metropolitan University, Painting Dept