In this deeply personal talk, Alexis Soul-Gray reflects on her life and artistic practice, from her earliest encounters with drawing to the ways grief and loss have shaped her work. She explores how found photographs and materials become a means of revisiting memories of her mother, and how drawing, painting and collage allow her to reimagine these images.

The talk concludes with a drawing activity using candle wax, Quink ink and sterilising fluid, inviting participants to experiment with layering and removing marks, working from imagination or observation. Instructions are included at the end of the video so you can try the activity at home.

This conversation formed part of our Drawing Weekender, which took place over the 18th and 19th of July 2026 in collaboration with Hauser & Wirth at their Somerset gallery.

Biography

Alexis Soul-Gray is an artist based in Devon, and an alumna of the Royal Drawing School. Her work reinterprets found imagery through painting, drawing and collage, exploring nurture, trauma and memory via archival materials and reparative re-making.

Soul-Gray trained at Camberwell College of Arts (2000-2003) and earned an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2023. She completed the Royal Drawing School’s postgraduate programme The Drawing Year in 2007. She has also worked as an educator throughout her career, having held teaching positions at both Oxford Brookes University and the University of East London.

Soul-Gray’s work is featured in the permanent collection of Moderna Museum, Stockholm, and numerous international private collections. She has had solo exhibitions held at venues including The Arts Club, London (2024); Bel Ami, LA (2023); Liminal Gallery, Margate (2023), Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm (2022); Irving Contemporary, Oxford (2022); Exeter Phoenix Gallery, Exeter (2022); and Delphian Gallery, London (2021). Her first monograph, 'Immutable Fragments', was published in 2024 by Bel Ami LA.