Chaos and Order. The human body is a leaky vessel in which we carry around all our toxic emotions and desires. We try to present a structured self to society, but suppressed emotions have a habit of escaping and interfering with our interactions. We offend without realising, we misunderstand, misconstrue and end up bewildered and angry. We desire things that harm us, we know this and we can’t help it. Changing ourselves is hard.

My recent work reflects this dichotomy of external structure and internal disarray. Carefully rendered three-dimensional forms jostle with energetic, gestural marks in a physical space that can only exist in painting. The environments suggest figures, body parts, micro-organisms or the cosmos. The paintings can be one of these things, or all of these things simultaneously.

Barbara J Graham (b. 1971, Canada) is a painter currently working out of Arches
Studios in Southampton. She earned a BA(Hons) in Sociology and Economics at
Manchester University in 1994 before working as a TV and Film editor for twenty years.
In 2009 she began her Fine Art Foundation at Wimbledon college and went on to earn
a BFA(Hons) at Wimbledon College of Art, London in 2013. She recently completed
two years on the Correspondents Course with Turps Painters.

AWARDS