Responding to an increasingly digitalised world where images and time periods merge and appear in one seemingly eternal present, Harriet Gillett hopes to slow down these increasingly fast-paced encounters into images of reverie. Taking reference from the emotionally charged vibrancy of post-Impressionism and the devotional nature of Western religious formats, her combination of traditional subjects with contemporary materials enables her to tread a line between multiple perspectives and time periods.
She works from sketches made in the moment, usually of friends in pubs and at live gigs, later attempting to capture these communities and atmospheres within her paintings. Working predominantly with oil and spray paint, she layers thin veils of colour over a warm fluorescent spray paint ground that is reminiscent of the gold within icon paintings and a “rose-tinted” lens. This enables the work to position itself between the past and present, the traditional and the contemporary, both in terms of its imagery and its materiality.
Paint operates as a metaphor for both instability and potential transformation, allowing for a fluidity of form, blurring the line between the experienced and the imagined. The same images are repeated across multiple scales, shifting personal memories into the symbolic realm. She often uses lyrics from songs and literature within the titles or sides of paintings to add another layer of perspective.
The paintings become dreamlike and lyrical explorations of identity; moving between intimate snapshots that evoke something more personal and scaled-up sketchbook pages that take on an immersive and more universal quality.
Harriet Gillett (b.1995 East Yorkshire) is an artist living and working in London. She received her MA in Fine Art at City and Guilds art school in 2022 after studying a BA in English Literature at Edinburgh University (2017). Recent exhibitions include group shows at Brooke Benington, Roman Road, Delphian x Saatchi and duos with Soho Revue and New Normal Projects. She was shortlisted for the Ingram prize in 2020 and is one of the 2023 New Contemporaries. She is currently undertaking the Palazzo Monti Residency.
Prizes
Shortlisted for New Contemporaries 2023
Recipient of the Federation of British Artists Mentorship Prize 2021
Shortlisted for the Ingram Prize 2020
Exhibitions
2023
'Surrealism and witchcraft' Lamb gallery, London 16th November (group)
'I is Another' New Normal Projects @ Cromwell Place, London 10-15th October (duo)
'New contemporaries' Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool (group)
'You are Here' Mapa Fine Art @ Staffordshire Street Gallery, London 13-16 April (trio)
'Down to Earth' Badr El Jundi Gallery, Madrid March (group)
'Babelle' curated by Caspar White, Spazio Musa, Turin (group)
'The Picture' Brooke Benington, London Jan 25- Feb 25 (group)
'When I was walking on the edge of a teacup' Roman Road, London Jan 19- Feb 17 (group)
2022
'Daytime Dreaming' Arcstay curated by The Artist Contemporary, Padstowe (group)
'Power to emotion' Tart Gallery @ Fitzrovia Gallery, London (group) October
MA Degree Show, City and Guilds of London Art School, London. (group) September
'The places we go' Soho Revue, London (duo) June
'Works on Paper IV', Blueshopcottage Online exhibition (group)
Art for Charity Collective, Unit Gallery 1 Workshop, London. June
Art on a postcard x India Rose James, Soho Revue, London (group)
'Synthesis' Delphian x Saatchi, Saatchi, London (group) March
2021
'Art on a postcard' Soho Revue London (group)
20 for 20, Soho Revue, London (group)
'The Healing Wound' Purslane Art, Online exhibition (group) September
'Euphoria' Procrastinarting, Online exhibition (group) September
'A Chorus of Bodies' Liliya Art Gallery, Putney, London. (group) 17th September- 10th October
'In a New Light' Art City Works Open Call Online Exhibition (group) September
'Figurative Art now', Mall Galleries, Federation of British Artists, Mall Galleries Online exhibition (group) July - September
City & Guilds of London, BA and MA 2020 Graduate Show, Oxo Barge House, Southbank July 26-31st
'Emergence' Rise Art, Soho July 20th - September
'The Wild Geese Call', Old Street Gallery, 23rd-28th August
'Small Pleasures II', All-mouth Gallery, Online exhibition, Auction Collective, August
'The Domestic and the Feminine, Procrastinarting, Online exhibition (group)
‘Bigger Pleasures’ All-mouth Gallery, Online exhibition The Auction Collective (group)
‘Works on Paper III’ Blueshopcottage Gallery, Online exhibition (group)
‘Art For Relief’ Online exhibition (group)
‘The Birthday Party’ The Artist’s Contemporary, Online exhibition (group)
‘Art for Charty Collective’ Open call winner, Online auction (group)
‘Tides Always Turn’, AucArt, Online exhibition (group)
2020
December 'Life on Venus', The Tub, Hackney, London. (Group)
December 'Curated for Christmas', All-mouth Gallery and Bowes Paris Gallery, Wandsworth, London (Group)
All-mouth Gallery, Online exhibition (Solo)
15th November 'The tales we tell ourselves', Online exhibition with fifteen female identifying artists, Purslane Art
The Ingram Prize, Online Exhibition, November (group)
July 'Final, not Over' exhibition of graduate work at Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop, Notting Hill, London
2019
'Salon des Refuses', Camden Image Gallery, London | Voted as one of the Top 12 Artworks in the exhibition
2018
'Visual Art Open prize shortlist'. Chester Arts Fair and in Chapter House, Chester Cathedral
2017
'Wondering People' exhibition at Summerhall, Edinburgh (group)
2015
'Creativity Takes Courage' Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh (group)
Education
2021-22 City & Guilds of London Art School | Ma Fine Art (Distinction)
2019-20 | City & Guilds of London Art School | Graduate Diploma (Distinction)
2013-17 | Edinburgh University | English Literature (1st)