Exhibition
Joe Hesketh / Seduction & Sedition
5 Nov 2015 – 28 Nov 2015
Event times
Tuesday to Friday: 12 to 7pm
Saturday: 12 to 5pm
Cost of entry
Free
Address
- 139 Whitfield street
- London
London - W1T 5EN
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- Warren Street
New paintings by Joe Hesketh
About
Watch the SEDUCTION & SEDITION trailer at https://youtu.be/_HFguqGev20
The Fitzrovia Gallery in Whitfield Street, London is hosting SEDUCTION & SEDITION, from November 5 – 28, 2015, an exhibition of new oil paintings by Joe Hesketh, in association with Clive Jennings, Director of The National Print Gallery.
Joe works in the Pendle area of Lancashire where she was born and still lives, and practices witchcraft herself: “I’ve always done bits of spells – it’s well wishes. People from the earth using herbs for good luck. I like to call it orange witchcraft, because it’s not black or white.”
Many of the large scale oil paintings feature herself, often depicted unflatteringly as a voluptuous “balloon headed” clown, in an environment rich with symbols of potential harm and criticism. This is her way of dealing with her inner demons and self doubt, a technique that while keeping her on the edge, creates images that are both beguiling and subversive.
Joe explains: “My paintings are all about life’s journey, all the pieces you pick up and all the things you’d like to throw away..My mission is to create a visual diary of self discovery, self realisation and self direction. I don’t think that anyone would get it all as I see it, they get bits, and that’s what I want them to get. But it’s not a gloomy process, I have great fun making my paintings”.
Joe’s paintings are both disturbing and amusing, and she manages to tread the narrow line between poignancy and tragedy. She has a dynamic and engaging personality, characteristics that come across in her imagery, but there is a dark side as well.
“Joe Hesketh is obviously a character and it shows in her large and brazenly sensuous paintings … a cheeky rudeness, brave flaunting of sexual intimacies, and also an undertow of vulnerability.” (The Guardian)