10 Jul 2021 – 23 Dec 2022
Celia Hempton. Installation view: 10th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea, 2014 © the artist. Courtesy the artist and Southard Reid, London. Photo: Stefan Altenburger
Celia Hempton. Installation view: 10th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea, 2014 © the artist. Courtesy the artist and Southard Reid, London. Photo: Stefan Altenburger
Celia Hempton’s painting is driven by close observation. While her subjects have ranged from landscapes depicting outdoor objects to nude portraits of friends, a particular area of work that preoccupies her is painting strangers she encounters in live online forums. Hempton’s Chat Random paintings are, in effect, an extreme form of life drawing; distanced, disembodied, detached and often extraordinarily beautiful. In other series, Hempton has looked at landscape through hacked CCTV cameras or close up, in real life, on the edge of building sites or active volcanoes. In exhibitions, Hempton creates ambience for her paintings, surrounding them with washes of colour in expansive abstract murals.
Celia Hempton (born 1981, Stroud) lives and works in London. Hempton studied at the Royal College of Art, London and The Glasgow School of Art.
Celia Hempton, United States, 4th August 2020, 2020 © the artist. Courtesy of the artist and Southard Reid, London
An idea that’s inherent in all of my paintings is: When does looking become an act of trespass? How long are you allowed to look at something, and how does looking at something for a long time change the experience?
– Celia Hempton
Celia Hempton, Kocaeli, Turkey, 21st April 2017, 2017. © the artist. Courtesy of the artist and Southard Reid, London.
Celia Hempton, installation view: Kathy Acker: Who Wants to Be Human All the Time. Installation view: Performance Space, New York, USA, 2018 © the artist. Courtesy the artist and Southard Reid, London. Photo: Adam Reich