As She Is

The women and muses referenced in Christina Rosetti’s poem, “In An Artist's Studio” are subject of and to the depictive agent of the male gaze. Landing on the final line, “Not as she is, but as she fills his dream’ Rejina Pyo subverts the context of Rosetti’s archly critical poem and instead allows female artists and muses to shine within their own right within a group show she’s curated, titling the exhibition ‘As she is”.

Love, loss, motherhood, guilt, and societal expectations rattle around the experience of being a woman as both larger themes and fleeting thoughts as we stand in line at a coffee shop. In response to these themes, ‘As She Is’ joins 19 female artists in conversation with one another to shape a narrative that is often muted in favour of the more palatable aspects of being a woman. Across the multidisciplinary show, the nuances of femininity are equally attended to with each artist enabled to exist ‘as she is’ within a landscape that boils femininity down to a superficial experience. 

Blurring the line between art and fashion, the function of women as a muse, as loved, hated, and envied is still as rampant as it was when Rosetti penned her criticisms. However, for Rejina, fashion is used to encourage a more vibrant form of self-expression, to explore the women around her and draw from them, not as muses on a pedestal, but as unique individuals. Deviating from the usual fashion show format, Rejina’s exhibition represents a space that all can enjoy with hopes to engage a wider audience in a much needed figurative conversation on what it means to be a woman today. The show features an installation by Rejina herself, centring a collection of objects, furniture and art accumulated by her mother in South Korea, all of which represent points of inspiration for Rejina’s personal design aesthetic.

Running from the 23rd October to 2nd November, ‘As She Is’ will show at Soho Revue Gallery on Greek Street. 

Read more about 6 of the artists included below…

Chantal Joffe

Painter Chantal Joffe navigates her personal history through figurative art. While processing her own truths through self-portraits, it would be remiss to label Chantal as her own muse. Suffused with an integrity that a ‘muse’ is often not afforded, Chantal’s paintings alert us to how we shape appearances, both our own and of others. A social irony lingers around women portraying or capturing themselves as while we are meant to embody beauty and care deeply about our appearances, there’s also a sense that we should'nt acknowledge it at all. Chantal’s exploration in self-portraiture is a nice digression from this patriarchal infused irony. 

Nengi Omuku

Formally trained in floristry and horticulture, Nengi’s work finds its roots (literally) in the natural world. For ‘As she is’ painting on traditional Nigerian sanyan silk a fabric woven together by the Yoruba people, Nengi depicts a transient female figure, willing her to express what is beyond language and touching beautifully on the constraints within linguistics, how we convey thought or feeling when we may not have the tools to articulate. Titling her piece ‘Untitled 2021’ there’s a sense that the lack of rigid name of the painting allows the oil painted figures to express more than what a name ever could've. 

Jane YangDhaene 

Crafting beauty through imperfection, Jane’s stoneware departs from internal and external expectations of perfection. Extending on anomalies and experimenting with a more intuitive-led creative process Jane’s pieces are both other-worldly, and yet very much rooted in the earthen-clay that was used to make them. 

Catherine Repko

Departing from her relationship with herself and her three sisters, Catherine’s work embodies a painted poignancy depicted by female figures, as children, mothers and women alone. ‘This Moment’ depicts three women, one of whom is pregnant and a young girl, her hair being played with or gently tucked behind her ear by one of them women that from her perspective, must tower over her small body. While this could allude to a larger conversation around femininity and lineage, perhaps ‘This Moment’ of familial poignancy is simply being preserved by Catherine. 

Lyson Marchessault

For sculpturist, Lyson Marchessault, ‘Mother 2023’ as shown at ‘As She Is’ gives form to a more subverted depiction of the Virgin Mary. Embodying both motherhood and virginity, the image and idea of the virgin mother has been used as both a stick and carrot against women for generations. While the presence of this impossibly “perfect” idea of woman has been weaponised, Lyson wrangles with this through her sculpture, forming her piece as a stool and inviting a physical quashing of the shame that once emanated from the virgin’s presence. 

Caroline Walker

While there may be a resounding cultural imagination of what constitutes “women’s work” Caroline Walker’s paintings commence a discussion around the authenticity and lived experience of “women’s work”. In her painting ‘Dylan, 2023’ a woman can be seen crouched down surrounded by wires and buckets and a concrete mixer in the back, her long hair braided to the side and her sleeves crumpled up in the creases of her arms. What Caroline paints subverts this resounding idea of “women’s work” and yet her motivations aim to remind viewers that simply because this image is under-represented, it's very much the universal, contemporary experience of women in the workplace. 

The 19 participating female artists are..Ángela de la Cruz, Antonia Showering, Caroline Walker, Cassi Namoda, Catherine Repko, Cathleen Clarke, Cece Philips, Chantal Joffe, Eileen Cooper, Jane Yang-D'Haene, Joline Kwakkenbos, Lyon Marchessault, Mia Chaplin, Nengi Omuku, Rachel Cusk, Rejina Pyo, Sammi Lynch, Sis Cowie and Yoona Hur