New Talk Art!!! Season 12 continues!!! We meet emerging artist Lydia Pettit! We discuss painting, growing up in Maryland, horror films, moving to London and the strength you can gain from being creative!!!! Pettit's first presentation with White Cube is available to view online now, her first solo exhibition with the gallery.

Building on the artist’s previous paintings that explored Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, this new series is centred on the alienation we experience within our bodies. Works in oil, embroidery and quilting portray the body with various objects such as keyholes, doors and household items. These domestic motifs serve to symbolise a haunted house, filled with spectres of the past.

In her compositions, Pettit toys with different levels of exposure to invite the viewer on the path where the artist's self image intersects with, as she puts it, ‘the memories and ugly feelings that leak out and interrupt us'. Framed with large swathes of black, Pettit’s depictions conjure a void, enveloping and invading the figure. 

As well as tracing personal experiences of doubt and rumination, recovery and growth, these works also speak to broader issues surrounding body politics and mental health. As the artist states: ‘I use my paintings and quilts to accept this part of me, make peace with it and move forward, and leave these fleeting thoughts on canvas and fabric.’

LYDIA PETTIT (b. 1991) is a Painter and Curator from Towson, Maryland. She pursued her BFA in painting and photography at the Maryland Institute College of Art and is a two-time recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant. In 2014, she purchased and opened Platform Arts Center, a studio and mixed-use building in downtown Baltimore, to provide affordable studio space to young and low-income artists in the area. Within the space she was the co-Director and co-Founder of Platform Gallery, a project with a focus on providing opportunities to Baltimore-based and regional emerging artists. In 2017 Pettit and her partner closed the gallery, and she turned her focus to her art practice. She obtained her MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2020 and is now living and working in Bow, London.

Lydia's solo show with White Cube runs online until 8 March 2021. You can visit the exhibition at this link:

https://whitecube.viewingrooms.com/viewing-room/introductions-lydia-pettit/

Follow @LydiaPettit on Instagram. Her official website is: https://lydiapettit.com/ and you can also Follow @WhiteCube for more details and images! Thanks for listening.

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