Untethering ...
Portals spin, grow teeth, figures quiver in fear or excitation. Eyes fixed they stare. Some dance while others hide or weep.
How to speak with the past? The drawings and paintings made over the last few years have emerged out of the attempt to capture fragments of memories, childhood experiences, barely understood bodily feelings and bring them together into a form, an entity that I could address.
Initially the drawings were small but they grew and the figures became life-sized or more than. The process of moving the brush across the paper drew out feelings that surprised me in their intensity and complexity, the things I hide away, the emotions I don’t wish to feel or would rather not recognise. Here they gain a voice. I called these figures 'embodiments'. As they appeared I cut them out (cut them from me) and held them upright with canes so that they can stand before me.
I was surprised that the embodiments, being both of my past and the present, seemed to have their own autonomy and agency and to speak their own narratives. In cutting them out they had begun to stretch and unstick themselves from me. I wanted to find what alternative narratives they might have.
In spring of 2022 I asked a small group people, dancers, who were familiar with exploring their own sensory and emotional responses, to meet the embodiments at my studio. They were invited to choose the one they felt drawn to and through a series of exchanges to attempt to find a way to communicate with their paper other. My role was to witness, support, and to keep a safe, confidential space.
The participants each bought their own humanity, experience and memories to the process of communicating with the embodiment, asking questions of them, showing kindness and compassion, anger, irritation and sadness. What I felt was the growing of a triangle of empathy between myself, the participant and embodiment. This was very moving to watch and seeing their gestures of tenderness emerge through this intimacy, I found myself strangely consoled.
At the end of last year I decided to film the final exchanges. The five short films are now near to completion and when they are I will publish excerpts on my website.
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 activity
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. Other artists in the series: Helen Turner, Nick Marsh, Sarah Pager and Abigail Norris.
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, 207 High Street, 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 artists Nick Bush and Nick Marsh and Helen Turner. 11th/12th, 18th/19th & 25/26th September.
2021 NU Artists, group exhibition. Lewes Artwave Festival, East Sussex. 11/12th September.
2020 ‘Words that transform, vibrate and glow: 13 paintings inspired by the lyrics of Nick Cave’, Charlie Smith London. Curated by Angela Koulakoglou. Artists: Emma Bennett, Daniel P. Carter, Nadine Feinson, Maggi Hambling, Florian Heinke, Sam Jackson, James Johnston, Susanne Kühn, Concha Martinez Barreto, George Shaw, Dominic Shepherd, George Stamatakis, Rose Wylie. 17 January - 8 February
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. 11 January - 26th March. Curated by Paula MacArthur and Wendy Saunders.
2015 Surface to Air, & Model Gallery, Leeds. 12th November - 12th December. Curated by Mark Wright.
2015 Surface Value, James Freeman Gallery, London. 8 - 31st October. Curated by Mark Wright.
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, 5th-6th December. Curated by Rosie Hermon. (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. A two-part show with a focus on 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. Exhibition of contemporary painting 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 (Trailer Productions), October 15 – November 13
2005 ‘We Have Left the City Gates’, The Nunnery, London. Curated by JJ Charlesworth. June 18 – July 16
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, IP12 2TW. 14th - 19th August.
2022 Open Plan, Towner Gallery, Eastbourne. Group Residency. 1-6th August
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., Yr1 Year Leader, 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