Susie Hamilton

Biography

I live and work in East London and am represented by Paul Stolper Gallery, London. I make paintings, drawings and prints and depict people in natural or in urban wildernesses: polar explorers on the ice cap, pensioner shoppers in impersonal superstores, astronauts in space and, more recently, patients and doctors in Covid wards. I put figures in bleak or challenging places and then make them more vulnerable by my ‘iconoclastic’ method of painting which makes and unmakes images. I draw over the figures with lines, obscure them with blots or clusters of cells, melt them into acrylic fluidity or turn them into semi-abstract shapes. In this way they appear damaged, even grotesque, a quality that appeals to me because it faces up to messy, abject or mutable aspects of humanity.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions include C-19, Paul Stolper (2020); On Margate Sands, Paul Stolper (2018); in atoms, Paul Stolper (2016); Here Comes Everybody, St Paul's Cathedral, London (2015); World of Light, Triumph Gallery, Moscow (2008); New Paintings, Galleri Trafo, Oslo (2007); Paradise Alone, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull (2003). Group shows include Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, London (2020); A Dreadful Day, Paul Stolper, London (2020); Beyond Other Horizons, Iasi Palace of Culture, Romania (2020); Art Car Boot Fair, London (2020, 2019); Drawing Biennale, Drawing Room, London (2019, 20017, 2015); Grub Party (2-person show), Transition Gallery, London (2019) Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, London (2018); Towards Night, Towner Gallery, Eastbourne (2016); John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2014, 2004); Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London (2014, 2009, 2004); Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Space, London (2012). 

See Susie’s Lockdown Interview here -

About this work

In April I was contacted by consultant hepatologist and art collector, Peter Collins, who thought that images of doctors and patients in Covid wards might be interesting subjects for my work. He sent me photographs from his hospital and I sourced more from TV. I found the isolation of medics in PPE and the defencelessness of patients in neon-lit settings inspirational. The images also appealed because of my preference for painting figures who are partly hidden: made into silhouettes, obscured by darkness or light or concealed by specialised coverings. Similar to my ‘Polar Explorers’ and ‘Astronauts’ my doctors/nurses are metamorphosed through hoods and masks. Some are like creatures from Hieronymus Bosch, some like 16/17th plague doctors and others have an angelic quality with light shining from or bursting on them. I imagined their alien appearance to be especially dramatic for the patient, someone who may already be suffering from hallucinations, and so painted a series of them as close-ups, paying attention to the strange shapes of respirators, visors and goggles.