Vanessa Garwood

  • Faculty

Biography

Born in 1982, Vanessa’s art first focused on portraiture and in developing a language of oil painting through both commissioned work and her own subjects. These themes ranged from narrative storytelling, male nudes, dancers, also performance collaboration with choreographers. In 2020 her practice shifted to include acrylics and ceramics, working in these new mediums to build a world where more personal themes could be explored. This year she was included in the Hauser&Wirth group show ‘Present Tense’ and exhibited a solo show at PMAM Gallery in London.

On drawing

Drawing is what I use to access the most instinctive and gut felt lines and ideas to build my paintings out of. There is an honesty of gesture, so personal that it’s almost like a fingerprint, which comes out only in a drawing that holds a certain kind of magic which I aim to hold onto in the rest of my work.

Vanessa Garwood
Women sitting amongst her supermarket shopping Copyright Vanessa Gardwood
Women vaping, drinking and laughing Copyright Vanessa Gardwood
Many women chatting and drinking at a party Copyright Vanessa Gardwood
Two women laughing Copyright Vanessa Gardwood
Woman in bed with her sleeping children Copyright Vanessa Gardwood