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