Rest in Limbo
Fitzrovia Gallery, London, 23 - 28 July 2024
Samantha Wilson (b. 1990) creates figurative drawings and paintings inspired by a self-curated photography archive encompassing over 60 categories. Driven by a keen sense of ethical inquiry, Wilson's work invites viewers to reflect on their relationship with imagery, identity, and empathy in the contemporary world through a unique reimagining of photographic images.
She employs visual tensions, leveraging ambiguity and the unresolved through the use of liquid watercolour, powder pigments, charcoal, and oil paint. Bodies, faces, and identities are both revealed and concealed, deliberately straddling abstraction and narrativity.
Her paintings raise ethical questions of representation, prompting viewers to consider the responsibilities of both the artist and the observer in responding to contemporary crises. Through this, Wilson emphasises the need for compassionate connections that transcend race, age, gender, and political status.
Rest in Limbo marks Samantha Wilson’s first solo exhibition in the UK and emerges as a call to embrace the resting place of discomfort: to support others in their grief while simultaneously confronting our own. It seeks to uncover the transformative potential of human connection in an increasingly fractured world.
Exhibition text by Samantha Wilson, 2026.
