Mattea Perrotta & Rafaela de Ascanio

For her second show in London, Mattea Perrotta (b. 1990, Lives and works in LA) presents new paintings which are a highly personal thematic content involving the unconscious, sexual desire, and the female body. These themes draw on events in her childhood for which she considered making art a therapeutic process. Through her use of abstract form Perrotta’s work deals with notions of universal balance, childishly juxtaposing a painting practice conventionally considered male or female. For example, her use of rough textures and underpainting most strongly associated with masculinity to soft biomorphic forms suggestive of femininity. Her latest additions of cardboard studies of her father as a body builder further explore the human body of a male subject seen through a female gaze.

For the Cave Project, Rafaela de Ascanio (b. 1986, Lives and works in London) has created a series of glazed vessels in collaboration with her ceramicist partner Lamb Van Winter. Scrolling around each jar are scenes that recall art historical tropes; symbolism from Renaissance tarot cards, landscapes from mythological painting and compositions from Egyptian friezes. Appropriating the reverence of canonical imagery, de Ascanio paints stories depicting her contemporaries, reimagining these ancient narratives with female protagonists. While these characters are portraits of artists and performers, their deification as female warriors, witches and goddesses, imbue them with individual talismanic powers; from creation and fecundity to strength and rebirth.