Victoria Cantons

Overview
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"The human condition and questions of identity are central to my work. Through painting, I investigate themes of power, identity, and male and female perceptions of each other." - Victoria Cantons 

Though she considers herself a painter, Victoria Cantons also works in photography, text, neon and video. And through all of her practice, she  draws.
 
Having grown up in London as an only child of immigrant parents who had both experienced war in the countries they had come from, she is very aware of stigma. Her mother was from Madrid and Catholic, and her father was French Algerian born to Russian Jewish and Basque parents. She recalls memories of being different from the outset. Being able to accept, declare and celebrate herself is an ongoing journey that for her, was littered with mental anguish, trauma and scars.
 
Through her work, Victoria Cantons questions how much freedom we have? Where are our boundaries? She considers what is happening in the gender war, the notion of what a woman is or can be and how people shape their beliefs. She wonders how she fits into all of this? What is the common ground? What can paint and a painting do?

What we as individuals present to the world is multifaceted and not always visible, a continuous evolution in response to experience and in relationship to each other. She is interested in themes of power, identity, and people’s perceptions of each other. For Cantons, these aspects connect us all and yet we are also unique individuals.

Her work is autobiographical and confessional with political undercurrents, exploring identity, self and representation, and allowing her to point her attention towards the dialogue between painting, in and of itself, what it’s doing now and its history.

She often uses elements of photographs as source material, her own and sometimes found, but paintings always begin with questions and the sketchbook. She is seeking to translate what she is feeling in that time through painting. Though many of the paintings could not exist without photography, it is not the origin of the image that is important, she is concerned with the emotional response triggered within and their potential for reinterpretation or translation – she is preoccupied with the human environment and a desire for answers.

Ultimately the personal is political, painting relates to moments that are to do with things that are beyond language, beyond logic, beyond gravity and sound and nature. From the content and imagery to the titles, the human condition, gender, and social identity are at the core of her work.
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Biography
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Victoria Cantons (b. 1969) completed an MFA at Slade, University of London in 2021, after studying a BA at Wimbledon College of Art. She has undertake two residencies, The Vannucci Artist Residency (VAR) in 2022 and the Silver Art Projects Digital Residency in 2021. She was shorlisted for New Contemporaries (2022) and the Chadwell Award (2021), and recieved the Felix Slade Scholarship (2018). 
 
She has exhibited at multiple art fairs including, Art Singapore with Flowers Gallery, Singapore (2023), Masterpiece with Flowers Gallery, London (2022) and Photo London with Kovet.Art , London, (2021). 
 
She has three upcoming solo exhibitions, with Kunstverein Association for Contemporary Art, Dresden, Guts Gallery, London and Flowers Gallery, London. Recent selected solo exhibitions include: People Trust People Who Look Like Them, (Flowers Gallery, London, 2022), Champagne tastes on beer money, (Guts Gallery, London, 2020) and Give Me Your Hand So That I May Not Be Alone, (48 Woodstock Road, London, 2018). 
 
Recent duo exhibitions include: Tomorrow Will Be The Most Beautiful Day Of Your Life, (STUDIO WEST, London, 2021) and You Can Tell Me, (Cuturi Gallery, Singapore, 2021). Recent selected group exhibitions include: (It’s My Party) I Can Cry If I Want To, (Guts Gallery, London, 2023), Small is Beautiful 40th edition, (Flowers Gallery, London, 2022), New Romantics, (The Artist Room x Phillips, Lee Eugean Gallery, Seoul, 2022), Like there is hope and I can dream of another world, (Hauser & Wirth hosts Hospital Rooms, London, 2022), LONDON GRADS NOW. 21, (Saatchi Gallery, London, 2022), A New Art World, (Guts Gallery, London, 2022), TRANSCENDENTAL, (Cuturi Gallery, Singapore, 2021), Redirecting, (Tree Art Museum, Beijing, 2021), PAPA RAGAZZE, (Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, 2020), 
 
In October 2020, and 2021 she curated the Slade Graduate showcase as a part of London Grads Now at the Saatchi Gallery. Her work has been featured in The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Sunday Times, The New York Times, i-D Magazine, Elephant, Dazed and FAD Magazine amoung others. 

 

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