London Paint Club

Miranda Forrester

Abode

3 December - 7 December 2020

Miranda Forrester at Guts Gallery 2020
Miranda Forrester ABODE SERIES #3, 2020 Oil on canvas 41 x 31 cm © The Artist, Images courtesy of GUTS Gallery

"Queer companionship, joy, and solidarity are at the heart of these paintings, exploring the sensitivities of womxnhood."

“Abode” is a new series exploring the relationships of queer black womxn and non-binary people, both with one another and with themselves. The abode is where you are rooted; your space to dwell; where desire and tenderness exist without reservation. This series observes this essential interior, and the subtleties of the emotions, actions and happenings that occur there.

Miranda Forrester at Guts Gallery 2020
Miranda Forrester Abundance, 2020 Oil and gloss on canvas 61 x 40 cm © The Artist, Images courtesy of GUTS Gallery
Miranda Forrester at Guts Gallery 2020
Miranda Forrester YUKKA (FIG. 3), 2020 Oil and gloss on PVC over wooden stretcher 61 x 40 cm © The Artist, Images courtesy of GUTS Gallery
Miranda Forrester at Guts Gallery 2020
Miranda Forrester DOING THE THINGS THAT WE DO, 2020 Oil, gloss and image transfer on canvas 148 x 118 cm © The Artist, Images courtesy of GUTS Gallery
Miranda Forrester at Guts Gallery 2020
Miranda Forrester UP LATE, 2019 Oil, gloss and image transfer on canvas 148 x 118 cm © The Artist, Images courtesy of GUTS Gallery
Miranda Forrester at Guts Gallery 2020
Miranda Forrester T-DRIFTING, 2020 Oil on canvas 61 x 40 cm © The Artist, Images courtesy of GUTS Gallery

Biography

Miranda Forrester’s practice explores the queer black female gaze in painting, relating to the history of men painting womxn naked. Her work is concerned with addressing the invisibility of womxn of colour in the history of art and combating the fetishization of our bodies. She has been investigating how her identity impacts the way in which she depicts her subjects, and how her paintings can rearticulate the language and history of life drawing through a queer black feminist desiring lens, and in doing so, depict what the male gaze cannot see. Her use of stretching plastic over stretchers and painting on highly primed smooth surfaces is fundamental to the work, as it allows the viewer to see through the pictured bodies; the surface becomes more than skin, allowing the figures to become real and alive, moving and breathing on the canvas. This layering of transparent materials alludes to the complexities and nuances of womanhood and femininity; gender and sexuality.

Work Enquiry