6 - Signal Gallery - Elinor Evans Solo Show

Elinor Evans' solo show 'The Masked Princess'

6^th May - 28th May 2011

Wherever Elinor Evans has shown her work, her paintings have been praised for their effortless fluidity and spontaneity. Described by Bon Magazine (where she won second place in Young Masters Generation Y prize) as a true 'painters painter', there are few young UK artists who can match her oil painting skills.

This technical ability has invariably been matched by the quirky and ambiguous nature of her subject matter. Populated by animals, combined intimately with human figures whose faces are oddly concealed behind animal masks, her canvases weave their spell with a disquieting charm.

In many of her earlier works, a subtle sexual edge is in evidence. Female nudes consort with dogs, horses and most provocatively with monkeys, in an impressionistic Rubenesque manner.

In these works the boundaries between the human animal and other species seems to be blurred in a way that suggests that the artists feels more at ease with these four-legged companions than with human ones. Most of the animals she paints are indeed her own pets and her greatest muse, she says, is her beloved Dalmatian dog, Picasso.

In her first solo show at Signal Gallery, The Masked Princess, Elinor will be exploring the same broad themes, but with a difference. Now a mother living in Spain with her family, she has embraced her new lifestyle moving away from the earlier more flirtatious style. Instead, the new series includes children (still hidden behind masks) and the poses have a strange diffident formality about them. The human figures seem to be forced into party frocks and ill-fitting inappropriate shoes and look distinctly uncomfortable. While the familiar animal characters seem to be their normal relaxed unpretentious superior selves.

Elinor studied at Chelsea College of Art and then at the Royal College of Art where she completed her painting studies in 2005. In 2004, she won the Amlin Prize at the Royal College as the most promising young artist. In 2003 her Welsh compatriots recognized her skill by awarding her the Fine Art Award at The National Eisteddfod. Since graduating, she has had solo shows in London at The Apartment Gallery. She has also shown extensively across Spain, particularly as part of the multimedia Shaman Project, which she curated and managed herself.

When

5^th May: Private View and Press.

6^th May - 28th May: open to public.

Where

32 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4LB

www.signalgallery.com

Tel: 07766 057 212

More information

Patrick Palmer, JAM Media Ltd