Anna Ilsley

Biography

Anna Ilsley’s work is inspired by mythologies and cultural references from across eras and cultures, her paintings and drawings address the physical and emotional impact of motherhood, in/fertility, loss, and her intensely strong urge to kick back against the cultural and political forces that shape women’s relationships with their own bodies. Using the physical constraints of the canvas itself as a structure that both restricts and supports the figures it contains, the characters she depicts are in turn resplendently fleshy, embracing, smothering, saucy, monstrous.